A Cook dinner County decide permitted a plea deal that allowed a person accused of robbing one other driver throughout a road-rage confrontation to keep away from serving any jail time, though prosecutors stated the theft occurred whereas he was carrying an ankle monitor for a gun case.
Robert Bray, 35, of Evergreen Park, was charged in September 2023 with illegal use of a weapon by a felon. Court docket data present he was launched on digital monitoring after posting a $500 deposit on September 17, 2023, the ultimate day Illinois courts set money bail.
Prosecutors stated Bray was nonetheless carrying the ankle monitor when he turned concerned in a minor site visitors crash round 4 p.m. on January 2, 2024, within the 100 block of East forty seventh Avenue.
In response to prosecutors, Bray exited his car and aggressively confronted the opposite driver, a 29-year-old man, threatening him and demanding cash. Prosecutors stated Bray grabbed the sufferer’s cellphone after which instructed his passenger to steal the sufferer’s Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Bray’s passenger adopted these directions and drove away within the SUV, prosecutors stated. In the meantime, Bray allegedly shoved the sufferer towards a wall and choked him, in accordance with the state’s allegations.
Chicago Police Division surveillance cameras recorded the confrontation and captured Bray’s license plate, prosecutors stated. Investigators additionally relied on ankle monitor location knowledge and the sufferer’s identification of Bray in a photograph lineup to make the arrest.
Bray was charged with vehicular hijacking and different offenses.
However he lately reached a plea settlement with prosecutors. Court docket data present Bray pleaded responsible to theft and illegal use of a weapon by a felon, and Decide Pamela Stratigakis sentenced him to 6 years for the theft conviction and three years for the gun cost, to be served concurrently.
With credit score for time beforehand spent in jail and on digital monitoring, plus the state’s normal 50% sentence discount, Illinois Division of Corrections data present Bray was launched the identical day he arrived in custody to serve the sentence.
Bray’s prison historical past features a five-year jail sentence in 2017 for aggravated battery of a peace officer and a 30-month sentence in 2021 for aggravated illegal use of a weapon. In 2019, a jury acquitted him of a separate felon-in-possession gun cost.
