Another Palatine teen accused in Feb. 1 shooting
A 15-year-old Palatine boy faces a first-degree murder charge in the Feb. 1 killing of a man he believed to be a gang rival, a Cook County sheriff's spokeswoman said Monday.
His co-defendant - 16-year-old Palatine High School school freshman Andre Naydenov, who prosecutors say drove the car used in the fatal shooting - was charged with first-degree murder last week.
Because he is 16, Naydenov is charged as an adult. He is being held in juvenile detention on $750,000 bail.
His 15-year-old co-defendant will remain in juvenile court unless a judge grants prosecutors' request to transfer it. Cook County prosecutors have not indicated whether they want to try the boy as an adult.
Authorities say Naydenov was driving a silver BMW with the 15-year-old co-defendant the day of the murder when they stopped at a gas station near the Silver Lakes Apartment Complex in Palatine Township, about the same time Jose Castaneda Jr. and his friend arrived there on foot.
After Castaneda, 20, of Palatine, and his friend left the station, prosecutors say, Naydenov and the 15-year-old followed them in the car. Naydenov told authorities the 15-year-old believed Castaneda and his friend were rival gang members and said they should "stomp" them, which the older teen "understood to mean hurt or kill," according to prosecutors.
Naydenov said the 15-year-old told him to drive in Castaneda's direction then opened the passenger door and fired multiple shots, according to prosecutors. Castaneda died from a gunshot wound to the back, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
Naydenov later called a family friend who was incarcerated and admitted in that recorded call that "we shot two (gang members) down on Silver Lakes," prosecutors said.