DuPage inmate already on $3.5 million bail racks up more felony charges
An Elgin man, already being held on $3.5 million bail and facing 21 to 90 years in prison related to the abduction of a Wheaton College student, has racked up several new felony charges while he's been in DuPage County jail.
Jeremy Jones, 23, already charged with armed robbery, aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping and armed violence in the August abduction in Glen Ellyn of a Wheaton College student, has now added three counts of intimidation to his charges and an extra $200,000 to his bail.
According to prosecutors and charging documents, on March 19 Jones threatened to physically harm another inmate if that inmate did not give Jones his sister's phone number. Once Jones obtained the Wheaton woman's phone number he is alleged to have called her and again threatened to harm her brother if she did not put $100 on Jones' commissary account. If Jones is convicted of the newest counts, Judge John Kinsella warned him an additional sentence of two to 10 years would be served after he finishes any sentence he may incur on the previous case.
In the Glen Ellyn case, prosecutors said Jones, a 17-year-old relative and 18-year-old Abeet Ramos of South Elgin were driving around in a vehicle reported stolen by Ramos' roommate, "hunting" for someone to rob.
The Wheaton College student was walking north on Forest Avenue between Cottage Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard at 9:50 a.m. "killing time before worship at the college's chapel" when he was charged by Jones and the teen, prosecutors allege.
Jones grabbed the victim by the shirt and forced him, at gunpoint, into the back seat of the SUV, prosecutors said.
The three took the victim's baseball cap, his wallet and his iPhone, forcing him to remove the pass code and tracking device, authorities said. They then drove him to a bank along Roosevelt Road and ordered him to withdraw $1,100 from an ATM, authorities said.
The trio then drove the victim to Chicago, where they made more ATM stops, prompting withdrawals of $200 and $300, prosecutors said.
They kept the victim in custody, forcing him at gunpoint to lie on the floor in the back of the SUV, until about 11:30 a.m. when they let him loose in Chicago, gave him his iPhone and $20, and drove away.
Ramos has been held on $3 million bail in DuPage since his Sept. 2 arrest. The 17-year-old juvenile from Elgin, later revealed to be Jones' younger brother Timothy Jones, was shot and killed on Dec. 27 in Elgin in an unrelated matter.