Chicago Man Charged in Killings of Two Girlfriends a Year Apart 

Two young women were found dead in separate parts of Chicago’s East Side. Their killings happened nearly 13 months apart, and both cases initially remained without an arrest. 

Prosecutors now allege that the same man killed them while dating each victim. Anthony Nunnally, 21, faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 19-year-old Sierra Evans and 17-year-old Gabriela Arellano. 

A Cook County judge ordered Nunnally detained pending trial during an August 5 hearing. The charges remain allegations, and Nunnally is presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. 

A night with friends ended in Sierra Evans’ death 

Evans spent the evening of September 27, 2024, drinking with Nunnally and several friends, prosecutors said during Wednesday’s hearing. An argument reportedly developed within the group, and Nunnally became upset because Evans did not take his side. 

Prosecutors allege that Nunnally choked Evans before someone told him to leave the home. He and Evans departed, but witnesses reportedly saw him return later. 

Gunshots rang out after his return, prosecutors said. Witnesses allegedly saw Nunnally jump a fence, enter the basement and say that he had shot someone while displaying a gang sign. 

A neighbor found Evans the following morning in an alley in the 9500 block of South Avenue N. She had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene, Chicago police said at the time. 

Evans had recently turned 19. She had finished high school, started working at UPS and dreamed of becoming a hairstylist with her own salon. Her death left relatives searching for answers as investigators worked without an identified suspect. 

“Sierra was a good person,” her friend Timia Garrett said during an October 2024 vigil. “She was so kind-hearted. Sierra never crossed nobody, never did nothing wrong to nobody.” 

The case also became part of Chicago’s heated debate over gunfire-detection technology. Sensors reportedly recorded gunshots near the scene shortly after midnight, but the city had ended its use of ShotSpotter days earlier. Evans’ body was not discovered until more than nine hours later. 

Whether a faster response could have saved her was never established. The delay, however, deepened the anguish surrounding a killing that remained unresolved. 

A second teenager disappeared the following year 

More than a year later, Gabriela Arellano vanished after her mother dropped her off at a friend’s home on October 17, 2025. Her mother reported her missing four days later. 

Surveillance footage placed Arellano, Nunnally and another person at a restaurant on October 25, prosecutors said. The group then allegedly traveled to a witness’s home. 

During the early hours of October 26, cameras reportedly captured Nunnally and another man looking along the street before returning to a vacant lot in the 11000 block of South Mackinaw Avenue. 

One minute later, a nearby Ring camera recorded the sound of a gunshot, prosecutors said. The two men were then allegedly seen running from the area. 

A resident found Arellano’s body in the vacant lot later that morning. Police initially disclosed that the 17-year-old had suffered two gunshot wounds to the head. 

Investigators had not publicly identified a suspect when they announced her death. The circumstances connecting Nunnally to the case emerged during the August 5 detention hearing. 

Prosecutors say his own statements connected the cases 

The prosecution’s account depends partly on statements Nunnally allegedly made at different times. 

Investigators say Nunnally once threatened another girlfriend by telling her he would kill her as he had killed his previous girlfriend. Prosecutors presented the alleged threat as an admission connected to Evans’ death. 

In the Arellano case, authorities say a jail informant wore a recording device while housed with Nunnally. Prosecutors allege that Nunnally was recorded admitting that he killed Arellano because she intended to “backdoor him.” 

The precise meaning of that phrase was not explained in the initial court coverage. Prosecutors must still establish the context, authenticity, and legal admissibility of the alleged recording. 

The court presentation also referenced surveillance footage, the Ring camera recording and witness accounts. The complete evidence has not yet been tested at trial, and publicly available reports do not disclose whether investigators recovered a weapon or forensic evidence connecting Nunnally to either shooting. 

Nunnally was already in custody when prosecutors filed the murder charges. Police records cited in the August 5 court report show that officers arrested him days after Arellano’s death in connection with an alleged armed carjacking earlier that month. 

He has remained in Cook County Jail since that arrest. His next court appearance in the murder proceedings is scheduled for August 26. 

Two investigations now move forward together 

The new charges connect two homicides that unfolded in the same part of Chicago but originally appeared separate. 

Evans was a 19-year-old beginning her adult life. Arellano was 17 and had been reported missing before someone found her in a vacant lot. Both died from gunshot wounds, and both were reportedly dating the man now accused of killing them. 

The evidence outlined in court provides prosecutors with a theory linking the cases. It does not amount to a conviction. Nunnally’s defense will have the opportunity to challenge the witnesses, recordings, surveillance footage and every alleged statement attributed to him. 

No members of either victim’s family were seen in court during the detention hearing. Their absence does not lessen what the hearing represented: the first public indication that authorities believe they have identified one person responsible for both deaths. 

For nearly two years, Sierra Evans’ loved ones waited to learn whether anyone would face charges in her death. Gabriela Arellano’s family later entered that same painful uncertainty. 

The August hearing did not deliver a verdict or restore either young life. It opened the next stage of two cases that now share a courtroom, an accused man and a demand for answers. 

Justice will depend on what prosecutors can prove, what the defense can challenge, and what the evidence ultimately shows. For the families of Evans and Arellano, the long wait for that process has only begun.