A Chicago man paroled in June after serving time for a robbery that left a man dead is accused of trying to carjack two 16-year-old boys at gunpoint in September — with police watching as it happened.
At about 10 p.m. on September 25, Hernan Cortes, 29, approached a car in the 6100 block of North Milwaukee that was occupied by the two Skokie teens and tapped on the windows with a replica firearm modified to look real, according to prosecutors. He allegedly pointed the gun at the driver, demanded that he open the door, and tried to pull the doors open, but the teens did not comply.
Unbeknownst to Cortes, Chicago cops were looking right at him as he did all of that, a CPD report said. The officers were in the area responding to a report of a person with a gun when they spotted Cortes riding a bicycle and began following him because he matched the description of the reported suspect, according to the report.
Police said they watched as Cortes got off the bike while holding a black gun and used its barrel to tap on the driver’s window of the parked vehicle. Officers immediately stopped and announced their presence. Cortes looked at them and tried to escape while still holding the gun, but an officer disarmed him, according to the report.
The weapon turned out to be a .45-caliber replica BB gun with its orange tip blackened with a marker to make it look more like a real firearm, police said. Officers also found a metal axe in Cortes’ waistband, according to the CPD report.
Judge Luciano Panici Jr. ordered Cortes detained on two counts of attempted aggravated vehicular hijacking.
Cortes was paroled less than three months earlier, on June 26, after serving time for a 2017 robbery that left a 20-year-old man dead.
On October 1, 2017, Cortes and Luis Cano-Padilla conspired to rob 20-year-old Jose Rico during a marijuana purchase in the 5000 block of North Bernard Avenue, prosecutors said. Cano-Padilla allegedly shot Rico in the head and chest before going through the dying man’s pockets. Although prosecutors alleged that Cano-Padilla fired the fatal shots, Cortes was charged with murder under an accountability theory, which allows someone to be held criminally responsible for another person’s actions under certain circumstances.
Cortes ultimately pleaded guilty to robbery and received a 14-year prison sentence in 2022 from Judge Joanne Rosado. He was required to serve 85% of the sentence and received credit for 2,875 days spent in custody before sentencing, court records show. Cano-Padilla received a 35-year sentence for murder and is expected to remain in prison until 2053.
