CHICAGO — All in all, it’s been a rough few weeks for Angel Martinez. Prosecutors have just charged him with committing two armed carjackings late last year. And they also charged him with firing a gun into the air after someone shot him on New Year’s Eve.
Judge Susana Ortiz detained Martinez, 23, as a public safety threat, noting that he’s a two-time convicted gun felon on pretrial release for a felony auto theft case in Indiana.
Chicago cops arrested Martinez at his Far South Side home last week after two carjacking victims identified him in separate photo line-ups, according to his CPD arrest report.
The first carjacking occurred on December 20 in the 8300 block of South Buffalo. Prosecutors told Judge Ortiz that Martinez arranged to meet the 19-year-old victim to buy a computer. When the victim showed up, though, Martinez and two other men wearing ski masks displayed a pair of guns and ordered him out of the car, officials said.
Two days later, Martinez and one accomplice carjacked a 48-year-old food delivery driver at gunpoint in the 8400 block of South Brandon, according to police and prosecutors. The driver’s dashcam recorded Martinez holding a gun, according to the judge’s detention order.
Then, around 2:26 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, Martinez was standing in the 10300 block of South Avenue L when a drive-by gunman opened fire on him, striking him in the thigh, officials said.
Martinez allegedly fired 12 rounds into the air after being shot. Police recovered the firearm, equipped with an extended magazine, at the scene, prosecutors said.
Police arrested Martinez at his home to face charges in all three incidents. He’s charged with two counts of aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm and one count of reckless discharge of a firearm.
Court records show he pleaded guilty to two felony gun possession charges in April 2022. Judge Joseph Claps sentenced him to one year in one case and two consecutive years in the other.
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