The man who carjacked an SUV with two children inside on the Northwest Side over the weekend left his parole slip near the hijacking scene, prosecutors said during a bond hearing Monday. Omar Soto, 28, was ordered held without bail by Judge Susana Ortiz.
According to police and prosecutors, the chain of events began around 11 p.m. Saturday when Soto t-boned another car while driving near the 4800 block of West Fullerton. Soto ran from his car and climbed into the driver’s seat of a GMC Acadia that was parked on a nearby Walgreens parking lot. Its owner had left it running with her 14-year-old daughter and one-year-old son inside while she went into the store, Assistant State’s Attorney Loukas Kalliantasis said.
The 14-year-old, who was seated in the front passenger seat, told Soto that he was in the wrong car, but he ignored her and drove away with the kids, according to Kalliantasis. After pleading with Soto to let her and the baby out of the car, the teen Facetimes with her mother, and Soto tried to take her phone away, Kalliantasis said.
Soto stopped the car after a few minutes and told the girl to get out. When she didn’t, he grabbed her by the hair, dragged her across the center console, and pulled her out through the driver’s door, Kalliantasis alleged. Soto allegedly returned to the car and drove away with the one-year-old.
Police located the car on the 3700 block of West North Avenue and pulled Soto over. They took him into custody and found the one-year-old safe in the back seat. Soto pulled some hair from the 14-year-old’s scalp while removing her from the car, but she was not seriously injured, according to the allegations.
Kalliantasis said Soto is on probation for burglary and received a three-year sentence for DUI in 2018. He received probation for another aggravated DUI in 2016. Police found Soto’s parole slip at the crash site, and the driver who was t-boned by his car identified him as the driver who ran from the scene, according to Kalliantasis.
Judge Ortiz shot down a defense attorney suggestion that Soto should be placed on electronic monitoring rather than held without bail as prosecutors requested.
“We see every day that can be tampered with or simply just cut off and walked away from, so I do not think that will suffice,” Ortiz said.
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