CHICAGO – After last night’s double shooting involving men attending a street takeover on the Southwest Side, we decided to check in on a trio of guys accused of having guns during an unrelated stunt driving session late last year.
It turns out that two of them did better than the third because they were given special probation that could result in their case being dismissed while their friend received jail time.
On December 29, a Chicago Police Department surveillance camera team viewed live video from the Richard J. Daley Boat Ramp, 3150 South Western Avenue, knowing that the area is popular with stunt riders who enjoy doing burnouts and donut spins.
As officers viewed the video, they observed “several vehicles, including a black Infiniti, circling the boat ramp. Three men who were in the car were also seen posing for photos with a pair of rifles with large, distinctive ammunition magazines, according to prosecutors.
The Infiniti was heading for the exit when patrol cars arrived. When the car’s driver, reportedly 20-year-old Damian Bello, saw police, “he widened his eyes, dropped his jaw and grabbed the gear shift in panic,” an officer wrote in his arrest report.
He put his Infiniti in reverse, drifted to the side, accelerated onto a dirt road, hit an embankment and flew onto a nearby railroad track, the report continued. He tried to drive away with his car straddling the tracks, but the Infiniti was severely damaged and disabled, the officer wrote. Railroad officials told police that three trains were delayed more than an hour because an Infiniti stopped on the tracks.
Bello and two passengers, Ronald Benitez, 20, and Adrian Hernandez, 21, all of Aurora, were arrested.
Police said they found two handguns in the gravel about 15 feet from where the Infiniti stopped. Attached to one weapon was a loaded, clear 31-round ammunition magazine, and to the other a black 31-round magazine decorated with a D’Usse Cognac logo. Prosecutors said the weapons’ unusual ammunition magazines were recognizable on CPD surveillance videos. All three men were charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon
Both Hernandez and Benitez have now pleaded guilty before Judge Carol Howard to aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in a vehicle. She gave them both probation for a first-time gun offender and 50 hours of community service. Howard also ordered Benitez to “make a good faith effort to obtain employment,” according to court records.
If the men successfully complete their probation, their cases will be dismissed without conviction.
Bello, the driver, was not so lucky. He admitted to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Howard gave him a two-year prison sentence with 264 days credit for time spent in custody after being arrested, mostly at home on an ankle monitor. After a 50% reduction in sentence for good behavior, he is expected to be released on parole on December 23.
The two-year term is relatively light for the levy. Prosecutors dropped all of Bello’s traffic violations and seven additional weapons counts, including the more serious charge of unlawful use of a weapon in a vehicle with a prior conviction.
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