PALOS PARK, IL — A Chicago man is accused of carjacking an Oak Lawn woman at the Palos Park post office, and then driving around with her for the for six hours, before carjacking a second elderly driver. Damonte J. McCorkle, 25, appeared Thursday before Cook County Judge John Fairman on two counts of aggravated vehicular hijacking and kidnapping.
In keeping with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s new policies, the assistant state’s attorney told the judge that she would be seeking pre-trial detention.
The woman had just dropped off a family member at Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital around just after 5 a.m. Tuesday. She went to the Palos Park post office at 121st Street and 80th Avenue to mail some Christmas cards when she was approached by a man, later identified as McCorkle, the prosecutor said.
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The prosecutor said McCorkle, who was wearing a mask, told her to get out of her vehicle and she refused. He got in her vehicle and told her to drive while brandishing a gun, according to the complaint. While driving around, the prosecutor said McCorkle removed his mask and smoked marijuana and cigarettes.
McCorkle took $241 from the woman and demanded oral sex, which the prosecutor said she refused. Six hours later, at 103rd Street and Southwest Highway in Worth, the prosecutor said McCorkle told the woman to stop her vehicle and let him out because he was going to carjack another vehicle. There, the prosecutor said McCorkle carjacked a second vehicle from an 85-year-old man at gunpoint.
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When the woman finally returned home, she told her husband what happened, who called Oak Lawn police. OLPD alerted Palos Park police and an investigation ensued. Palos Park police called upon their major crimes investigative multi-agency support team, including Oak Lawn, Worth, Chicago Ridge, Palos Heights and Crestwood police departments, and Illinois State Police and Cook County. The agencies began gathering intelligence and tracking the second stolen vehicle utilizing data from plate reading cameras.
Chicago Ridge officers had tried to apprehend McCorkle in the second stolen vehicle earlier in the day, when they attempted to stop and arrest him on Southwest Highway in the area of 103rd Street, the prosecutor said.
McCorkle was eventually sighted, leading Chicago Ridge police on a high speed chase through the suburbs, where prosecutors said he ignored traffic signals and going 78mph in a 35mph speed zone. Chicago Ridge cops curbed the stolen vehicle at 135th Street and Cicero Avenue in Crestwood, where McCorkle was taken into custody. Officers found a loaded Sig Saur 9mm handgun in the second stolen vehicle, for which the prosecutor said McCorkle did not have FOID or CCL.
Police took McCorkle to Palos Hospital to be checked out. Afterward, he was brought to the Palos Park police station, where officers claim he made statements admitting to both carjackings.
The prosecutor told the judge that McCorkle has one prior misdemeanor for resisting in 2019. The case was terminated.
The assistant public defender stated that McCorkle has a GED and most recently worked at Amazon doing stock work.
“There may be some undiagnosed mental health issues that need to be addressed,” the assistant public defender said.
Judge Fairman said he found both the “back-to-back” vehicular jackings “extremely problematic.” The judge granted the petition for McCorkle to be detained.
McCorkle is due back in court Jan. 3 in Bridgeview.
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