CHICAGO — Two men are charged with kidnapping and robbing a taxi driver this summer, forcing their 66-year-old victim to transfer money to them via Zelle at gunpoint. Prosecutors have charged one of the men with committing a nearly identical crime on the same block just four days earlier.
A U.S. Marshal’s task force arrested Darryl Tate, 24, at his Kankakee home this week. His alleged accomplice, Jontae Baker, 24, has been in custody since September when prosecutors accused him of the earlier crime.
On July 2, Tate and Baker forced a cab driver into the back seat of his taxi in the 1600 block of East 50th Street, officials alleged. They pointed a rifle at him, demanded his wallet and phone and drove to a parking lot where they forced him to make electronic transfers, a Chicago police report said.
After the two robbers fled, the victim realized that his iPad, debit and credit cards, and cash were gone, too.
A Kankakee police officer and a Homeland Security Investigations agent identified Tate from video and still photos, according to the CPD report.
Judge Ankur Srivastava ordered Tate detained pending trial on charges of armed robbery and armed kidnapping.
Baker was charged in September with joining an unnamed accomplice to carjack a man of his 2023 Lincoln Continental in the 1600 block of East 50th Street on June 28.
The duo forced the victim to ride around in the Lincoln as they used his debit and credit cards and made bank transfers, prosecutors said. A camera at one of those banks allegedly recorded the victim sitting next to Baker in the hijacked car as Baker used the man’s debit card at an ATM.
Later, Baker again used one of the man’s credit cards at a gas station, a CPD report said.
Prosecutors subsequently secured a grand jury true bill indicting Baker in the taxi driver case, too, court records show.
Baker has been facing a felony theft charge from Dolton since May 2023. He was charged with aggravated vehicular hijacking, armed robbery, and kidnapping in the June case, which is still pending.
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