A West Aspect man who carjacked a CTA bus and held its driver at gunpoint final yr has been sentenced to 10 years in jail, although he might be free in lower than three.
Choose Arthur Willis discovered 34-year-old Cortez Flowers responsible of aggravated vehicular hijacking and aggravated illegal restraint in a bench trial on December 5, based on courtroom information. Willis not too long ago imposed the sentence, which additionally features a concurrent one-year time period for a felony driving case Flowers was on bail for when the hijacking occurred.
With statutory credit score for good conduct, Flowers’ 10-year time period will likely be lowered to 5. He has already earned greater than 600 days of credit score for time served in Prepare dinner County Jail whereas awaiting trial.
Prosecutors mentioned Flowers hijacked a #54 Cicero bus after it pulled into the Montrose and Cicero terminal round 10:45 p.m. on January 13, 2024. The bus driver, who had allowed Flowers to remain on board for the southbound journey so long as he didn’t trigger issues, reboarded after a brief break and located Flowers standing within the aisle with a gun.
Flowers ordered the motive force to “be afraid” and directed him to drive north, then again onto his regular route, based on courtroom filings. The ordeal lasted about 25 minutes earlier than Flowers bought off at Division and Cicero. Officers mentioned the bus driver had tried to set off the automobile’s panic alarm however mistakenly pressed the mistaken button.
Chicago police fed CTA video pictures by means of facial recognition expertise to determine Flowers. Officers later staked out his house and arrested him.
“That’s me,” Flowers allegedly admitted when proven a picture of the hijacker, although he claimed he had merely fallen asleep on the bus and woken up on the lookout for his pockets. Detectives wrote that he later conceded the episode was “an enormous mistake.”
He was already going through a felony cost for driving on a license suspended attributable to DUI, against the law for which he had prior convictions in 2011, twice in 2013, and 2021, officers mentioned.
Flowers is scheduled to be paroled, fittingly, on Valentine’s Day 2028.
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