An 18-year-old man is accused of taking part in a chilling setup that ended with the murder of a Chicago Lyft driver at Christmastime 2023, prosecutors revealed in court this week. He is the third person charged in the case, part of a violent group of teenage hijackers that investigators believe was responsible for a slew of armed robberies of rideshare drivers in the winter of 2023.
The victim, Adriana Arocha-Duque, 34, was killed on December 26, 2023, in what prosecutors described as an orchestrated ambush in Austin. According to a detention petition filed by Assistant State’s Attorney Jake Bartels, Derrius Young, who was 16 at the time, and a group of accomplices used a phone, iCloud credentials, and ride-hailing accounts stolen from a previous robbery victim to lure Arocha-Duque into a trap.
Private surveillance cameras captured Young and three accomplices leaving a house and walking a short distance to a pickup point in the 2100 block of North Leamington, Bartels said.
Lyft records show Arocha-Duque picked them up in her 2020 Chevrolet Suburban around 8:20 p.m. Seconds later, her SUV pulled onto the 4800 block of West Thomas. It stopped abruptly in the middle of the block before suddenly jerking forward…