Two men who were charged with robbing a Lyft driver on the Magnificent Mile last August — only to have the charges dropped within two weeks — are now accused of carjacking a man together in the Grand Crossing neighborhood.
We wrote about Kveon Guadalupe and David Ellis last summer after a Lyft driver told police they robbed him while riding in his car near the historic Water Tower. Prosecutors charged them with felony robbery. Within days of their arrests, Judge Anjana Hansen threw out the charges against Ellis, saying there was no probable cause. Prosecutors then dropped the charges against Guadalupe. And that was the end of that.
In April, prosecutors charged Ellis with participating in four violent robberies including two carjackings. Friday, prosecutors charged Guadalupe with participating in one of those armed carjackings with Ellis.
On April 4, Ellis used a dating app to lure a man into a robbery at a gas station, Assistant State’s Attorney Darryl Auguste said. The 27-year-old victim allegedly recognized Ellis at the meet-up spot and began filling his Chevy Traverse with gas around 9:30 p.m.
Ellis, Guadalupe, and another man approached the victim at the pumps, and Guadalupe pulled out a gun, Auguste said. As the three men told him to empty his pockets, a fourth offender allegedly sucker-punched the victim in the side of the head. Ellis drove away with the victim’s car as Guadalupe rode in the passenger seat, according to Auguste.
The victim provided police with Ellis’ Facebook page and detectives tracked him down, according to prosecutors.
“I don’t look for trouble,” Ellis allegedly told cops after they arrested him. “I just hang out and sometimes sh*t goes wrong.”
After Ellis was charged in April, police executed a search warrant on his phone and found pictures of him and Guadalupe posing with cars, Auguste said. Cops included a photo of Guadalupe in a photo line-up and the carjacking victim allegedly identified him as one of the hijackers on April 21. Police arrested Guadalupe on Thursday.
Guadalupe, 18, has no criminal convictions.
Judge Arthur Willis denied a prosecution request to hold Guadalupe without bail. Instead, Willis said he would need to pay a $20,000 deposit and go onto electronic monitoring to get out of jail.
Ellis had another robbery case pending when he was accused of robbing the Lyft driver last year. In February, he struck a deal in the case with prosecutors: They agreed to drop the robbery charge and an escape charge if Ellis would plead guilty to a lesser count of unlawful restraint. He did. A judge sentenced him to 15 months and gave him 354 days credit for time served before pleading.
Ellis reported to Stateville Correctional Center on February 11 and was released the same day because his sentence was offset entirely by a 50% reduction for good behavior and the time served credit. He was on parole for that case when he allegedly went on the robbery and carjacking spree in April.