COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A Wicker Park man is accused of robbing a woman at knifepoint — slicing her in both arms — just two days after he was released on his own recognizance in another robbery case.
Prosecutors allege Christopher Pratile pulled a knife on a 27-year-old woman trying to enter her apartment in the 1400 block of North Greenview Avenue on Aug. 6.
Pratile, 30, tried to grab the woman's purse and sliced her in both arms with a kitchen knife before running off with the bag, Assistant State's Attorney Erin Antonietti said during a bond hearing this week.
According to court records, he took the victim's bank and credit cards, ID and $6 cash.
Police arrested him four days later after surveillance footage captured him using stolen credit cards, Antonietti said.
Pratile, of the 1400 block of North Ashland Avenue, was charged with armed robbery and admitted to the crime, prosecutors said. On Tuesday, Cook County Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. ordered Pratile held in lieu of $350,000 bail.
Antonietti said Pratile had been in court the previous week: On Aug. 4, he appeared before Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. on a robbery charge and was ordered released on his own recognizance. That charge was Pratile's first felony claim.
In that case, Pratile is accused of trying to steal a 35-year-old man's phone in the 1600 block of West Cortez Street on Aug. 3. Police said the victim was able to follow Pratile after the botched robbery and point him out to police, who arrested him without incident.
Two days after being released on the Cortez Street robbery, he allegedly attacked the Wicker Park woman.
Pratile also is facing a misdemeanor theft charge from late July. According to an arrest report, Pratile was picked up at a Jewel-Osco, 2550 N. Clybourn Ave., on July 30 after he allegedly put four bottles of Glenlivet in his backpack and tried to walk out without paying.
Pratile's public defender said Pratile works as a bartender and has an associate's degree from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.
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