CHICAGO — After prosecutors charged Jamond Thomas with carjacking a food delivery driver at gunpoint in late 2023, a Cook County judge ordered him jailed as a public safety risk. But another judge reversed that decision months later, allowing Thomas, 21, to go home on an ankle monitor. He’s not wearing the ankle monitor anymore. He cut it off and hasn’t been seen since, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
The delivery driver told police he was dropping off an order in the 7200 block of South Albany when an armed man got out of a red car and took his SUV at gunpoint around 10:45 a.m. on December 12, 2023.
Within 90 minutes, the Chicago Police Department’s vehicular hijacking task force arrested Thomas in the 5500 block of South Elizabeth.
Two days later, Thomas stood in Judge Barbara Dawkins’ courtroom at 26th and California. After hearing about the case, she agreed with prosecutors: Thomas should be kept in jail pending trial. The case was then assigned to Judge Laura Ayala-Gonzalez, who decided to send Thomas home on an ankle monitor on May 20, according to court records.
A month later, Thomas made his next appearance via Zoom. And that was the last time officials saw Jamond Thomas.
On Friday, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office highlighted Thomas’ case on its social media accounts, saying he fled from his home and is the subject of “several” arrest warrants. The agency’s investigators hope someone will help them find Thomas by calling their tip line at 708-865-4700.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has long complained that judges are using his electronic monitoring program, designed for low-level cases like drugs and shoplifting, for violent offenders like people accused of murder and, in Thomas’ case, carjacking.
The sheriff’s monitoring program will wind down over the next few weeks. Going forward, the office of Chief Judge Timothy Evans will be responsible for administering the county’s house arrest program.
Unlike Dart’s office, the courts are not subject to the state’s Freedom of Information Act regulations. The only details the public will receive about Evans’ program are the ones he decides to release.
