Woman who hijacked two cabbies in Hanover Park gets seven years
A woman charged with carjacking two cabdrivers in as many days in Hanover Park last June pleaded guilty on Monday.
In exchange for pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated vehicular hijacking, Yamilka Gomez, 21, of Chicago, was sentenced to seven years in prison on each count, prosecutors said. The sentences will run concurrently, prosecutors said.\
Gomez's co-defendant Martin Barrientos, 21, also of Chicago, was sentenced in December to 15 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to two counts of carjacking and one count of robbery.
According to prosecutors, Barrientos and Gomez held a knife to a female cabdriver and demanded money on June 18, 2017. After taking $800 and a cellphone from the victim, they drove off in her cab, which police found at Polk Street and California Avenue in Chicago.
On June 19, 2017, authorities say Barrientos and Gomez arranged for a cab to take them from Chicago to Hanover Park. Barrientos held a knife to the 59-year-old driver's neck while Gomez went through his pockets and took $100 from him, prosecutors said. The defendants told the driver to get out of the cab, then pushed him to the ground and drove off, according to prosecutors.
Gomez and Barrientos were arrested on June 20, 2017, after police stopped them for a traffic violation and recognized them as matching the descriptions of the carjacking suspects, prosecutors said.
Barrientos was also convicted of robbing a co-worker in 2015, prosecutors said.