Gang member gets 8½ years prison on weapons charge
A 24-year-old gang member was sentenced to 8½ years in prison Friday after pleading guilty to a weapons offense stemming from a 2013 arrest in Elgin.
Miguel Covarrubias, of the 1600 block of Maple Lane, Elgin, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a gang member, a felony, according to Kane County court records.
Judge James Hallock accepted the guilty plea, which also carried $450 in fines and court costs, records show.
In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dismissed other charges, such as unlawful use of a weapon and domestic battery, records show.
Covarrubias was arrested in October 2013 and was on parole at the time for a 2011 weapons offense.
According to police, he stopped his car on the 100 block of Jane Street and threw his girlfriend, who also was the mother of their two children, on the ground.
Covarrubias ran off after a witness asked the woman if she was OK. Police later pulled him over and found a .25-caliber silver pistol in his car, authorities said.
Covarrubias had been held at the Kane County jail on $300,000 bail since his arrest and he gets credit of about two years toward his sentence.