CHICAGO — A person who spent 20 years in jail for his position within the homicide of a Chicago police officer will probably be in courtroom at this time, going through new allegations that he teamed up with one other convicted assassin to kidnap and carjack a pair in Brighton Park final summer time. One of many carjacking victims, each of whom have been zip-tied, threw herself from the transferring hijacked automobile to flee her abductors.
Robert Brandt was 20 years previous when he pleaded responsible to a homicide cost hours earlier than his jury trial was set to start on September 28, 2001. Prosecutors stated Brandt hid the gun that somebody used to kill Chicago Police Officer Michael Ceriale three years earlier. Ceriale was murdered whereas conducting undercover narcotics surveillance on the Robert Taylor Houses.
The 16-year-old who fired the shot that killed Ceriale was sentenced to 60 years and two males acquired 30-year sentences for his or her roles within the crime.
Now, Brandt is accused of working with 44-year-old Ronald Wembley to zip-tie, kidnap, and carjack a pair on August 18. Wembley can also be a convicted assassin, having acquired a 45-year sentence for a Calumet Park slaying in 1998.
Throughout a detention listening to for Wembley in September, prosecutors stated Wembley and an unnamed confederate, allegedly Brandt, took a 35-year-old man’s automotive at gunpoint within the 2500 block of West forty fifth Place. They battered and robbed the person, took a 35-year-old lady’s purse, restrained each victims with zip ties, and compelled the couple into the hijacked automobile, in line with a detention petition filed towards Wembley.
The girl ultimately escaped by bailing out of the hijacked automotive whereas it was in movement, officers said. She suffered accidents to most of her proper facet, shoulder, and buttocks.
Investigators related Wembley to the crime as a result of his cellphone information and GPS allegedly put him on the scene on the time of the crime. Additionally they decided that video photographs of one of many carjackers resembled Wembley’s driver’s license picture, officers stated.
Brandt is charged with aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm, aggravated kidnapping whereas armed, and kidnapping whereas armed with a firearm. Prosecutors will reveal particular allegations towards Brandt and element how police linked him to the crime throughout his detention listening to on the Leighton Prison Courthouse on Thursday.
Courtroom information present that Brandt has been charged twice with being a felon in possession of a firearm since finishing his jail time for Ceriale’s homicide: in Could 2021 and once more in March 2023. Prosecutors within the Prepare dinner County State’s Lawyer’s Workplace dropped each instances inside months. In February 2023, Brandt was charged with violating the violent offender registration regulation. He acquired a sentence of two years, time served.
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