A Gary woman faces up to 12 years in prison for her alleged role in the double slaying of her teen son’s two friends over a missing gun, documents show.
Dawn Carden, 43, admitted in court documents that she made arrangements to hide the murder weapon her boyfriend, Alvino Amaya, used on Oct. 16, 2020, to kill Elijah J. Robinson, 18, and Maxwell Kroll, 17, in a basement where the teens lived on the 3900 block of West 51st Avenue in Calumet Township.
Amaya was convicted of murder in their deaths on March 4. He is scheduled for sentencing on April 29.
Carden pleaded guilty to assisting a criminal and dangerous control of a firearm, both level 5 felonies, according to a plea agreement filed April 18.
Each count carries a possible sentence from 1-6 years. The length would be argued by lawyers at a May 26 sentencing hearing.
Carden — a known drug dealer who goes by “Mama D” — told Lake County Sheriff’s police that Elijah J. Robinson, who was a friend of her son’s, never returned the gun she gave him, according to court documents.
The teens’ deaths were an “execution-style” killing, prosecutors said.
According to court documents, Amaya and co-defendant Elijah D. Robinson, 18, no relation, went back to Carden’s house after the killings. The missing gun belonged to her and her son, documents allege.
“I just (expletive) killed them,” Amaya said, according to Carden’s plea agreement.
Carden and Amaya talked about hiding the murder weapon in a storage unit, it states. She had a storage unit set up at Nearby Self Storage in Gary in her father’s name, then hid the gun there, documents allege.
Elijah D. Robinson cut a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to residential entry, rather than murder, in exchange for his testimony. His sentencing is June 28.
