COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A Brainerd teen accused of a short-lived crime spree was looking forward to prom this weekend and his high school graduation later this month, his attorney said.
But chances are 18-year-old Santana Riles won't make it to the dance.
Riles was arrested and charged with vehicular hijacking and robbery after prosecutors said he carjacked a woman waiting for a Metra train to pass in Brainerd and robbed another woman on her way home from the grocery store Monday.
His first victim was sitting in her red 2013 Hyundai Sonata in the 8900 block of South Marshfield Avenue waiting for the train to pass when a woman knocked on her car window asking for help, Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto said Wednesday in court.
A moment after the unidentified woman got into the victim's car, Riles appeared with what police later determined to be a BB gun, Scaduto said. He got in the car, too. Holding the BB gun to the victim's side, he ordered her to drive to an address on Marshfield.
When they arrived, Riles pushed the woman from the car and sped away, Scaduto said.
A short time later, Riles flashed the BB gun at a woman on her way home from the grocery store in the 400 block of West 33rd Street, Scaduto said. He demanded she hand over her groceries and took her purse before fleeing in the red Sonata, Scaduto said.
Police caught Riles shortly after 10 p.m. when they pulled the Sonata over for driving without a headlight and discovered it had been reported stolen, according to a police report.
At a bond hearing Wednesday, an attorney representing Riles argued that he was planning to attend his high school prom this weekend and graduation a week later.
The teen shook his head in apparent shock when Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. set his bail at $250,000.
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