Defendant in Armed Vehicular Hijacking at Oak Brook Mall Sentenced to 17 Years in Prison

"Judge MacKay’s seventeen-year sentence sends the message to any would-be carjackers that if you commit such a crime in DuPage County, you will be met with a significant prison sentence if convicted,” Berlin said.

Oak Brook - DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin and Oak Brook Chief of Police James Kruger announced today that a Chicago man has been sentenced to seventeen years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for hijacking a sixty-seven-year-old woman’s car at gunpoint in the spring of 2018. Darnell Anderson, 29 (d.o.b. 11/12/1991) of the 4800 block of W. Monroe, appeared in Court yesterday afternoon in front of Judge Jeffrey MacKay, who handed down the sentence. On February 19, 2021, Anderson entered a blind plea of guilty to one count of Aggravated Vehicular Hijacking, a Class X Felony.

On March 28, 2018 at 9:36 a.m., the victim was sitting in her Honda Civic before going to work at the mall. While she was in her car, a Toyota Camry, which was reported stolen out of Maywood, blocked her in a parking spot. A male, later identified as Anderson, got out of the Toyota, opened the victim's driver side door, displayed a gun and demanded that she exit the vehicle. The woman got out of the car and began to run, but Anderson caught up to her and took her purse before returning to the victim’s car. At that point, both the Toyota and the victim’s Honda fled the scene. The victim immediately contacted the Oak Brook Police Department who began an investigation into the hijacking. Later the same day, the stolen Camry was involved in a hi-speed pursuit with the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Police which ended with the Camry involved in a collision. Those involved in the crash informed police that they had bought the car from Anderson. On March 29, 2018, a search warrant executed at Anderson’s home on an unrelated matter yielded keys to his victim’s Civic. He was taken into custody and transported to the Oak Brook Police Department at that time.

"Judge MacKay’s seventeen-year sentence sends the message to any would-be carjackers that if you commit such a crime in DuPage County, you will be met with a significant prison sentence if convicted,” Berlin said. “Thankfully, the victim in this case was not physically injured. I would like to thank the Oak Brook and Chicago Departments as well as the Illinois State Police for their efforts which allowed us to bring a strong prosecution against Mr. Anderson. I would also like to thank Assistant State’s Attorneys Kristin Sullivan and Alyssa Rabulinski for their work in preparing their case against Mr. Anderson that led to his guilty plea.”

“This crime was extremely out of character for our community,” Kruger said. “The work our officers did with the help of the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office demonstrates that we will not allow violent crimes like this to go unanswered.”

Anderson will be required to serve 50% of his sentence before being eligible for parole.

###