A Chicago man was sentenced Tuesday to 13 years in prison for participating in two carjackings while wearing an ankle monitor for a pending felony gun case.
In early 2024, prosecutors asked a judge to detain then 19-year-old Eric Smith as a public safety threat, saying he was caught with a loaded Micro Draco AK-47 pistol after running from the wreckage of a crashed, stolen car. Judge Charles Beach, who was recently selected to be the next Chief Judge of Cook County, rejected the request and instead imposed a curfew and electronic monitoring.
That ankle monitor came in handy for Chicago police a few weeks later. They used its GPS history to link Smith to two armed carjackings that occurred when he was supposed to be on house arrest.
Chicago police issued a community alert about four recent carjackings in the Hyde Park neighborhood that detectives tied to the same group of suspects. Up to four masked men were getting out of a vehicle to target victims who were near or inside cars. The group displayed guns, demanded the victims’ wallets and phones, and then drove away in their vehicles, according to the alert.
Officials said Smith drove the crew’s getaway car during two of those crimes: one in the 5200 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue around 2 a.m. on March 24, 2024, and another in the 1500 block of East 55th Street about 15 minutes later.
Police later recognized Smith as he drove a Toyota Camry taken in one of those hijackings. They went to his home and found the stolen vehicle in the alley, running with the keys still in the ignition, according to his arrest report.
Officers saw Smith inside the home, still wearing his ankle monitor. Cook County’s home confinement unit confirmed that his device was at the location of both carjackings at the time of the crimes, the report said.
On Tuesday, Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated vehicular hijacking and received concurrent 11-year sentences from Judge Tyria Walton, according to court records. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated unlawful use of a weapon for the gun case that placed him on electronic monitoring. Walton ordered him to serve a consecutive two-year term for that offense.
His 13-year total sentence will be cut roughly in half with good behavior.
In addition to the gun case, Smith was also on release for two other matters, including a juvenile stolen vehicle case for which he was on probation and a separate vehicular trespassing charge.
Court records show Smith was charged three times in 2023 with criminal trespass to vehicles, a charge filed when someone is accused of being inside a car without permission. A case filed on January 12, 2023, was dropped by prosecutors eight days later. A case filed on February 6, 2023, was dismissed three weeks later. A case filed on October 17, 2023, was dropped on November 20.
