At the four-day trial, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jacquelyn Altpeter painted Alvino Amaya, 36, as a “cold-blooded killer” who murdered both teens to “make an example” of them
A jury convicted a Gary man Thursday of killing his stepson’s two teenage friends in a Calumet Township basement over a missing handgun. The lead detective described their deaths as “execution-style” murders.
[Most read] Famously shrewd, Michael Madigan has been indicted. But what did he actually say on tape?Another teen, Elijah D. Robinson, 18, no relation, was also charged, but cut a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to residential entry, rather than murder, in exchange for his testimony. His sentencing is March 15.
Two weeks before the murders, Carden had a party for Elijah J. Robinson at her house that he, girlfriend Destiny Solich, his sister Natalie Robinson, Kroll and Carden’s son, the teen boys’ co-worker and friend, and Amaya all attended. She and Natalie Robinson talked, deciding not to call the police, not wanting to risk getting the boys in trouble, she said. She did not hear any gunshots and didn’t think Amaya would go as far as to kill them, she testified.The next morning, Solich’s mother took her and Natalie Robinson to Kroll’s grandparents’ house, where the boys lived, on the 3900 block of W. 51st Avenue in Calumet Township. The girls found both boys’ bodies in the basement and ran out of the home screaming, they testified.