A man who hijacked a car with a 2-month-old baby inside and then drove two blocks while the child’s father clung to the vehicle’s hood was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Friday, according to court records.
Pherris Harrington, 30, was on parole after serving half of a 17-year armed robbery sentence at the time of the hijacking in Uptown in November 2022, prosecutors said. He had also been charged with robbery in Connecticut less than a month before the carjacking, according to media reports.
The child’s mother and father had left their Honda CR-V running with the baby strapped into a car seat while they picked up a bakery order in the 1500 block of West Lawrence around 11 a.m., prosecutors said. Surveillance video showed Harrington getting into the car and driving off while the baby’s mother tried to open the back door, prosecutors said. The father climbed onto the vehicle’s hood as Harrington drove away, according to prosecutors.
The 37-year-old mother fell to the ground and injured her leg and ankle, prosecutors said. Her 41-year-old husband was about two blocks away when he fell off the hood, injuring his rotator cuff and bruising both legs, prosecutors said.
Chicago police used the city’s network of cameras and license plate readers to locate the stolen vehicle in the 100 block of North Wacker Drive about 20 minutes later, prosecutors said. Harrington crashed the car into several vehicles and a cement wall before running from the vehicle in the Loop, prosecutors alleged. Police arrested him nearby.
Officers found the baby boy lying on the floor in the back of the SUV, but he was not injured, prosecutors said. His car seat, which had been facing the back of the vehicle before it was hijacked, was facing the driver’s side when officers inspected the car, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors said several .40-caliber bullets fell from Harrington’s pocket when he was arrested, though no gun was recovered.
On Friday, Harrington pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular hijacking while armed with a weapon in exchange for the 14-year sentence, which was handed down by Judge Aleksandra Gillespie. He will receive credit for 1,349 days already served in county jail. During an earlier court hearing, prosecutors said Harrington was adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile in 2013 for burglary, multiple gun violations, and a robbery charge that began as a vehicular hijacking.
