CHICAGO — A convicted murderer is now accused of zip-tying, kidnapping, and carjacking a couple at gunpoint in Brighton Park last month. The female victim escaped by throwing herself out of the carjacked car while it was in motion, according to officials.
Judge Antara Rivera detained 44-year-old Ronald Wembley as a public safety threat after prosecutors told her about the allegations during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse. Wembley, of Calumet Park, received a 45-year prison sentence after being convicted of a 1998 murder. He completed his parole in March 2022.
Prosecutors said he and an accomplice took a 35-year-old man’s car at gunpoint in the 2500 block of West 45th Place on August 18. They battered and robbed the man, took the 35-year-old woman’s purse, restrained both victims with zip ties, and forced the couple into the hijacked vehicle, according to a detention petition.
The woman eventually escaped by bailing out of the hijacked car while it was in motion, officials stated. She suffered injuries to most of her right side, her shoulder, and buttocks.
Investigators connected Wembley to the crime because his phone data and GPS allegedly put him at the scene at the time of the crime. They also determined that video images of one of the carjackers resembled Wembley’s driver’s license photo, officials said.
He is charged with aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm.
