When Chicago police found Joshua Diaz behind the wheel of a freshly carjacked vehicle, he was still wearing a ski mask. That was one of the details prosecutors pointed to as they charged him with vehicular hijacking in 2021. Now, Diaz has entered a guilty plea.
Judge Angela Munari-Petrone sentenced him to eight years last week in exchange for his guilty plea to a single count of aggravated vehicular hijacking with a weapon.
Prosecutors said a 27-year-old man was targeted as he unloaded items from his car in the 1900 block of West Thomas around 1:30 p.m. on November 30, 2021. A ski-masked man approached him, threatened him with a knife, and demanded his keys.
The masked man drove away with the car, but police tracked it to Berwyn via an app on the victim’s phone. When officers rolled up on the car, they saw Diaz getting out of the vehicle while wearing the same clothes the victim described. And, of course, he was still wearing the darn ski mask. Police said they found a knife in the stolen car’s center cup holder.
Diaz, 23, had never been arrested before. He went on electronic monitoring about three months after the charges were filed. That allowed him to earn 645 days of credit toward his prison sentence. The sentence will also be cut in half for good behavior.
His parole date is set for November 21, 2025.