Prosecutors say a Chicago man on parole for shooting a man in the foot and on electronic monitoring for a pending felony gun charge left his home and carjacked a woman during her lunch break. They cited GPS data from the man’s ankle monitor as proof of his participation in the hijacking.
Steven Kelsey, 24, was ordered held without bail by Judge Kelly McCarthy.
Kelsey was convicted of illegal gun possession and aggravated discharge of a firearm in a 2015 case that started as an attempted murder case, prosecutors said. He and three others stepped out of a car and opened fire on a group of people, striking one man in the foot, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Kyle Gruca.
Shortly after he was paroled, Kelsey was arrested again and charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon on parole. Public records show he was sent back to prison until June 2021, when he was released and sent home on electronic monitoring after posting a $10,000 bail deposit.
On July 12, a 44-year-old woman was enjoying her lunch break inside her locked car in a parking lot in the 200 block of East Marquette. While looking at her phone, she noticed someone tried to open her driver’s door, which was locked.
She looked up and saw a man wearing a ski mask pointing a gun at her and ordering her to get out. Another man was outside her passenger door.
The woman complied with the carjackers’ demands, and they drove away with her Dodge Charger. The hijacking was captured on video, Grupca said.
Two days later, officers from the Illinois Department of Corrections found the woman’s key fob in Kelsey’s pants pocket while conducting a parole compliance check at his home, according to Grupca. The woman’s hijacked Charger was parked in an abandoned garage two doors down from Kelsey’s house, Grupca said.
Data from the sheriff’s office showed Kelsey’s ankle monitor leaving his house and moving to the hijacking site at a speed “consistent with being on foot” and then traveling away from the crime scene at a pace that appeared to be in a vehicle, according to Grupca.
He said the victim could not identify Kelsey because the armed hijacker was wearing a ski mask, but she did say the gunman was shorter than her and provided other descriptors.
As a juvenile, Kelsey was adjudicated delinquent three times: twice for possessing stolen motor vehicles and once for aggravated vehicular hijacking.
The previous hijacking involved a victim who was talking on the phone while sitting in their car outside their work, according to Grupca. Kelsey pulled a gun on the victim and told them to get out of the car while threatening to shoot. Kelsey got into the driver’s seat, and another hijacker stepped into the passenger seat before they sped away.
He was also identified in a separate hijacking two days before that incident, according to Grupca.
Kelsey is now charged with a fresh count of aggravated vehicular hijacking and manufacture-delivery of cocaine.
A public defender said during his bail hearing that he is expecting his first child.
State officials revoked his parole in light of the new allegations, and Kelsey returned to Stateville Correctional Center last week.
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