A Chicago man was sentenced Tuesday to 13 years in jail for collaborating in two carjackings whereas sporting an ankle monitor for a pending felony gun case.
In early 2024, prosecutors requested a decide to detain then 19-year-old Eric Smith as a public security risk, saying he was caught with a loaded Micro Draco AK-47 pistol after working from the wreckage of a crashed, stolen automotive. Decide Charles Seashore, who was lately chosen to be the subsequent Chief Decide of Cook dinner County, rejected the request and as a substitute imposed a curfew and digital monitoring.
That ankle monitor got here in helpful for Chicago police a couple of weeks later. They used its GPS historical past to hyperlink Smith to 2 armed carjackings that occurred when he was imagined to be on home arrest.
Chicago police issued a group alert about 4 latest carjackings within the Hyde Park neighborhood that detectives tied to the identical group of suspects. As much as 4 masked males have been getting out of a automobile to focus on victims who have been close to or inside vehicles. The group displayed weapons, demanded the victims’ wallets and telephones, after which drove away of their autos, in keeping with the alert.
Officers stated Smith drove the crew’s getaway automotive throughout two of these crimes: one within the 5200 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue round 2 a.m. on March 24, 2024, and one other within the 1500 block of East fifty fifth Avenue about quarter-hour later.
Police later acknowledged Smith as he drove a Toyota Camry taken in a type of hijackings. They went to his dwelling and located the stolen automobile within the alley, working with the keys nonetheless within the ignition, in keeping with his arrest report.
Officers noticed Smith inside the house, nonetheless sporting his ankle monitor. Cook dinner County’s dwelling confinement unit confirmed that his machine was on the location of each carjackings on the time of the crimes, the report stated.
On Tuesday, Smith pleaded responsible to 2 counts of aggravated vehicular hijacking and obtained concurrent 11-year sentences from Decide Tyria Walton, in keeping with court docket data. He additionally pleaded responsible to aggravated illegal use of a weapon for the gun case that positioned him on digital monitoring. Walton ordered him to serve a consecutive two-year time period for that offense.
His 13-year complete sentence might be minimize roughly in half with good habits.
Along with the gun case, Smith was additionally on launch for 2 different issues, together with a juvenile stolen automobile case for which he was on probation and a separate vehicular trespassing cost.
Courtroom data present Smith was charged thrice in 2023 with legal trespass to autos, a cost filed when somebody is accused of being inside a automotive with out permission. A case filed on January 12, 2023, was dropped by prosecutors eight days later. A case filed on February 6, 2023, was dismissed three weeks later. A case filed on October 17, 2023, was dropped on November 20.
