CHICAGO — A man was sentenced today to more than 12 years in federal prison for stealing a vehicle at gunpoint in Chicago and striking a bicyclist while fleeing from police.
On the afternoon of May 27, 2020, ELIAS QUINONES-FIGUEROA forcibly took a Chevrolet Tahoe sport-utility vehicle from a victim who was cleaning the car in the Noble Square neighborhood of Chicago. Quinones-Figueroa brandished a handgun and drove off in the vehicle after the victim complied with demands to give up the car. Nearly three hours later, Quinones-Figueroa was driving the carjacked Tahoe when he noticed a Chicago Police vehicle and drove off in the opposite direction at a high rate of speed. Quinones-Figueroa drove through multiple stop signs and a red light before striking the bicyclist and crashing into a parked car in the city’s West Town neighborhood.
Quinones-Figueroa, 21, of Chicago, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of carjacking and one count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall sentenced Quinones-Figueroa to seven years for the firearm offense, to be followed by five years and seven months for the carjacking, for a total prison sentence of 12 years and seven months. Judge Kendall also ordered Quinones-Figueroa to pay $5,000 in compensation to the injured bicyclist and $1,000 in compensation to the victim of the carjacking.
The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI; and David Brown, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. Valuable assistance was provided by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn D. McCarthy.