Chicago man sentenced after kidnapping spree, sexually assaulting 2 victims: prosecutors

CHICAGO - A Chicago man has been sentenced for kidnapping three people and sexually assaulting two of them during a violent string of carjackings in early 2021, according to prosecutors.

What we know:

Andrew Anania, 29, was sentenced May 13 to 50 years in federal prison after a jury convicted him of kidnapping, carjacking, and firearm charges. The crimes occurred across several Chicago-area suburbs and the city itself in early 2021.

Prosecutors said Anania kidnapped three people over the course of three weeks. On Feb. 27, 2021, he got into a vehicle with a woman in Chicago, claimed he had a gun, and sexually assaulted her. The woman escaped at an intersection, and Anania crashed the stolen vehicle after fleeing.

On March 8, he kidnapped an Uber driver in Darien, prosecutors said. He forced her to drive into Chicago, where he sexually assaulted her in multiple alleys before running away.

Two days later, Anania and Walter Moran, of Cicero, abducted a woman on her way to work in Cicero, according to prosecutors. Anania pointed a gun at her and directed her to drive to Chicago, where Moran later exchanged gunfire with someone on the street. The pair eventually let her go and took her car.

Dig deeper:

Anania was awaiting trial in a separate federal firearm case at the time of the crimes and was released on bond. Prosecutors had tried to detain him pre-trial, but he was let go.

Moran, who pleaded guilty last year to his role in the March 10 incident, was sentenced in April to more than 15 years in federal prison.