Chicago Teens Found In Stolen Car Linked To Wilmette Car Thefts: Cops

WILMETTE, IL — Police believe a teen from Chicago's Uptown neighborhood is part of a crew responsible for at least three stolen vehicle incidents in Wilmette and Glencoe.

Genarris Williams, 19, was arrested shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday after he exited a stolen Acura that crashed in the 6800 block of McCormick while fleeing Lincolnwood police and hid under a nearby dumpster, according to police and prosecutors.

At the time of this week's arrest, there were two active warrants for Williams arrest. One was issued by a Cook County judge in December in connection with misdemeanor charges of criminal trespassing to vehicle, criminal trespassing to land and theft. Another was issued in January for failure to appear in DuPage County court in connection with a charge of possession of a stolen motor vehicle and resisting or obstructing police, court officials said.

Williams appeared in court Thursday in Skokie on two new charges — misdemeanor vehicular trespassing stemming from the Lincolnwood incident, and felony possession of a stolen vehicle stemming from a car theft last year in Wilmette.

In that incident, a Dodge Durango that was left unlocked with its key inside in the 1900 block of Thornwood was stolen shortly before 5 a.m. on Sept. 21. A tracking device allowed officers to locate the car on Chicago's South Side shortly after noon, prosecutors said Thursday at Williams' initial court appearance.

"It's amazing to me that you would have a real-time tracking device on your vehicle and pay for that, but you leave your keys in the car," Associate Judge Anthony Calabrese. "It's just astonishing to me, but there is Wilmette."

Police first spotted Williams in the car in an alley off Leland Avenue, but he drove away as officers were waiting for backup. Police spotted him again pumping gas into the stolen car at Falcon Fuel, 7114 S. Vincennes Ave., around 4 p.m. on the day the car was stolen. When police approached the car, its passenger fled on foot, Assistant State's Attorney Nic Attia said.

"[Williams] got inside the car and attempted to drive off the scene but crashed into another car that was pumping gas at the same station. [He] exited the vehicle and fled on foot, [he] returned less than a minute later trying to reenter the vehicle, but officers prevented him," Attia said.

Williams was able to get away that afternoon, but he left behind his cellphone, which was sitting on the driver's armrest of the stolen Durango and still plugged in and charging, according to the prosecutor.

---

Attia said analysis of the phone identified Williams and indicated he has been involved in other area car thefts.

"Based on the communications, officers concluded that he was a part of a group involved in other motor vehicle thefts. Based on the data recovered, officers connected the [Williams] in at least three other [stolen vehicle incidents] in Wilmette and Glencoe," the prosecutor said.

Those other cases remain under investigation, Attia said.

"In one of these incidents," he said, "a car hit the median and flipped over on the exit ramp of Touhy Avenue while fleeing from police."

A boy from Chicago's Kimball neighborhood was also arrested following the Lincolnwood crash. He was linked to a September 2021 theft of a Toyota SUV from the 1900 block of Greenwood Avenue, and petitioned to juvenile courts for both that incident and his involvement in the Lincolnwood incident, police said.

Assistant Public Defender Greg Kobus, Williams' court-appointed attorney, said Williams was a former delivery driver and high school graduate who has yet to be convicted of any criminal offense.

Calabrese said he believes Williams is a danger to the community and ordered him jailed on the new charges unless he can come up with a combined $26,000 cash. The judge said that bonds he sets end up being more substantial than most other Cook County judges, but people rarely violate them. When bonds are set at a lower amount in such cases, he said, it tends to depreciate the seriousness of the allegation.

"I guess, even a reasonable defendant would think that there's not much consequence to committing a criminal offense, and what happens when bonds are low is someone picks up a first case, then picks up a second case, then picks up a third case, then picks up a fourth case, and before you know it he's in a hell of a jam," Calabrese. "Because multiple bonds have been set in a situation that doesn't appreciate the seriousness of the allegations, and then here we are, sadly."

Williams is due back in court March 30 in Skokie on the new felony charge and March 31 on the new misdemeanor.