A Waukegan man has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for violently carjacking a Chicago woman during a Facebook Marketplace deal to sell their vehicle. Fonocerio Edwards, 22, pleaded guilty to vehicular hijacking in exchange for a 6½-year sentence from Judge Timothy Joyce, according to court records.
Prosecutors said Edwards teamed up with a 16-year-old girl for the December 23, 2024, carjacking. According to prosecutors, a 38-year-old woman was trying to sell her blue 2011 Chevrolet Traverse through Facebook Marketplace when she agreed to meet Edwards in the 2800 block of West 63rd Street so he could inspect the vehicle.
But the encounter quickly turned violent when Edwards pushed the woman out of the driver’s seat and climbed behind the wheel, prosecutors said. The woman managed to grab the keys from the ignition and handed them to a 32-year-old man who had accompanied her to the meetup. Edwards then struck the man in the head with an object, leaving him with a laceration and “copious blood,” prosecutors said.
In the days following the hijacking, but before investigators linked Edwards to the crime, Chicago police encountered the stolen vehicle. Body-worn camera footage from that encounter showed Edwards driving the Chevy, according to a CPD report.
Edwards received 685 days of credit for time spent in the Cook County Jail awaiting trial. With the standard 50% sentence reduction applied to his prison term, he is expected to have about 500 days remaining to serve.
Few details are available about the 16-year-old girl who allegedly helped Edwards because she was a juvenile at the time. According to CPD, she was also charged with vehicular hijacking.
