CHICAGO – “A very strange-looking individual” has been given a 12-year prison sentence for carjacking a man in Lincoln Park last year.
Nicholas Kaehler pleaded guilty to vehicle hijacking before Judge Peggy Chiampas on Wednesday, the day after his 23rd birthday.
On the evening of March 29, 2023, a 23-year-old man was stopped in traffic in the 2300 block of North Lincoln when a white Jeep pulled up behind him.
Kaehler and two accomplices exited the Jeep, and Kaehler knocked on the victim’s window while pointing a revolver at him, prosecutors alleged. The victim surrendered his car to Kaehler, who reportedly drove away with one of the other hijackers sitting in the passenger seat.
Prosecutors said the victim told police that one of the hijackers was wearing a balaclava-like balaclava, but they failed to hide the distinctive tattoos on their faces.
Officers in a Chicago Police surveillance room used license plate readers to find the stolen car as it headed south on Lake Shore Drive and told patrol officers where to find it.
Kaehler initially stopped for officers in the driveway, but sped away as they exited their police cars. Moments later, Kaehler stopped the vehicle in the 5400 block of South Lake Shore Drive and fled into Hyde Park with the passenger, officials said. He was still wearing the balaclava with visible tattoos on his face when police arrested him nearby.
During his first court appearance on the charges, Judge Barbara Dawkins noted that even though Kaehler was wearing a COVID mask while standing in front of her, he was “just a very strange-looking individual.”
Barring misconduct in prison, Kaehler will be released in the spring of 2029 after serving half of his sentence.
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