A Cook County judge this week sentenced a man to 11 years in prison for committing two violent carjackings in January 2020. Caleb Morales, 22, received a consecutive two-year sentence for escaping from electronic monitoring while the cases were pending.
On January 5, 2020, Morales nearly ran over a 53-year-old doctor after he pushed her out of her 2019 Porsche Cayenne on the 300 block of West Illinois in River North, prosecutors alleged.
The doctor was sitting in her car with the doors unlocked around 2:45 p.m. when a man opened her front passenger door, started a conversation, and then sat down in the passenger seat, police said.
He implied that he had a gun and pushed her out of the driver’s door while an accomplice entered the rear passenger seat. Morales allegedly climbed into the driver’s seat and sped away with the driver’s door still open, causing the woman to fall to the ground, suffering bruises and abrasions.
Almost exactly a week later, around 1 p.m. on January 12, Morales allegedly injured a child while carjacking a vehicle on the 1400 block of West Fulton in the West Loop.
Prosecutors said Morales forced everyone, including two children, from the Ford Escape at gunpoint, and one of the kids was slammed to the ground before Morales drove away.
On Wednesday, Morales pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular hijacking and escape. Judge Thomas Byrne sentenced him to concurrent 11-year sentences for the carjackings with the escape sentence served consecutively.
He will receive 787 days credit toward his carjacking sentences for the time he spent in jail and on electronic monitoring.
Prosecutors dropped several felonies in their deal with Morales, including attempted murder, aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, and identity theft, according to court records.
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