Accused Robbers Have Bond Hearing, Raise A Stink In Court

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL -- Two South Side men arrested for allegedly sticking up employees at an auto service shop in Western Springs got into a loud ruckus in the courtroom lockup during their bond hearing Thursday afternoon. Andrew Hester, 30, and Matthew Cargo, 23, both of Chicago, appeared handcuffed together before Cook County Judge Peter Felice on charges of armed robbery. Cargo has an additional felony charge of armed habitual criminal.

The prosecutor said that around 2:30 p.m., May 9, two men later identified as Hester and Cargo, walked into M&H Auto Center at 17 W. Ogden Ave., Western Springs. Cargo entered the service pit and pointed a silver handgun at two employees, the prosecutor said. Cargo allegedly ordered both employees to lie down on the floor. Fearing for their lives, the prosecutor said Cargo reached into an employee’s pocket, grabbing two cell phones and his wallet, and ripped a gold necklace off the other employee’s neck.

Cargo went into the business’s office and robbed a third employee, the prosecutor said. During the purported heist, Hester, who was unarmed, was inside the business. According to the charges, a fourth employee returned to see Hester and Cargo running out of the store, the prosecutor said. Hester got into the driver’s seat of a blue 2001 Buick Regal and Cargo in the front passenger seat and fled, the prosecutor said.

Western Springs police went looking for the suspects’ car, which they spotted near 55th Street and LaGrange Road. Officers surrounded the Buick and took both men and a woman riding in the back seat, into custody. The prosecutor said a silver handgun was hidden under a baseball cap on the front seat floorboard. Officers also found numerous cell phones and wallets in plain view. The woman was later released without being charged.

Cargo has a parole hold from the Illinois Department of Corrections, where he was serving an 8-year sentence for a 2015 armed robbery. His projected parole date is 2020. Cargo also has a 2011 burglary rap, to which he was sentenced to four years in IDOC, the prosecutor said.

A pre-trial safety assessment flagged Cargo for violence. Felice set his bail at $1.5 million and electronic monitoring if release. Cargo became disruptive and sheriff’s deputies led the handcuffed duo out of the courtroom.

“Be cool, baby,” Cargo shouted at family members sitting in the courtroom. “I love y’all.”

In the detainees’ holding area, Cargo could be heard protesting that deputies were hurting him and appeared to be trying to re-enter the courtroom, yelling, “I’m talking to my [expletive] people.”

Hester reappeared, where the prosecutor said there was a warrant for Hester’s arrest out of Winnebago County. The assistant public defender told the judge that Hester is a 2006 graduate of Gage Park High School in Chicago, over banging coming from the courtroom lockup where Cargo could be heard yelling, “I need to talk to my lawyer.”

Hester’s bail was set at $1 million, where he, too, was flagged for violence in a pre-trial safety assessment. Both are due back in court June 4 in Bridgeview.

During the other bond proceedings, court came to a halt several times as banging and yelling persisted in the lockup. Hester was to have come back for a hearing on the arrest warrant, when the sheriff’s deputy told that judge that Hester was “part of the issue in lockup” and had been brought downstairs to the jail bus.