CHICAGO — A Venezuelan migrant who allegedly had a stolen firearm in a vehicle during a traffic stop in downtown Chicago failed to appear for his first court date this week, records show.
Judge Robert Kuzas released Jose Aponte Garcia on September 28, the day after police arrested the 24-year-old near Millennium Park, and told him to return for a hearing on Wednesday, according to court clerk files. But Garcia didn’t show up, so Kuzas put out a warrant for his arrest.
The felony weapons charge stems from a traffic stop in the 200 block of North Lower Columbus Drive around 12:50 p.m. on September 27.
Officers pulled over a Chrysler minivan traveling without plates and arrested the driver, Yordan Javier Medina-Medina, 26, for driving without a license and without insurance, according to a CPD arrest report.
As the cops were dealing with Medina, they noticed Garcia sitting alone and grabbing his waistband in the third row of the minivan, the report said. After asking everyone to step out of the van, the officers allegedly found a loaded 9-millimeter handgun on the floorboard where Garcia had been sitting.
Police determined that the handgun had been stolen last November in Aurora, the arrest report said.
Garcia is charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in a motor vehicle.
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