Soon she will be gone

 

Cook County States Attorney Foxx Declines to Charge Migrant in Death of Teen

By Cam Edwards | 3:31 PM | October 09, 2024 

    

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

A migrant from Colombia arrested on first-degree murder charges in Chicago won't face prosecution for the death of a 17-year-old girl after Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx declined to file charges, claiming there's not enough evidence to bring the case to trial.

As Fox News reports, 19-year-old Juan David Ramirez-Olivo is alleged to have shot 17-year-old Stephanie Lopez Ramirez when his illegally-acquired gun went off in an apartment. While officers arrested Ramirez-Olivo on first-degree murder charges, they ultimately presented Foxx's office with evidence pointing to a lesser charge, but even those charges were rejected. 

The Chicago Police pushed for Olivo to be charged with involuntary manslaughter; Foxx’s office went to bond court last Friday afternoon and repealed the charges, citing "insufficient evidence" to Fox News.

A CPD source says a police chief assigned to this case was not happy with Foxx’s decision and was pressing for Olivo to be charged. 

"If they want to say that it was a complete accident and it wasn’t reckless then minimally charge him with the weapon that he admitted to illegally purchasing," the CPD source told Fox News. "No one thinks it’s legal to purchase a gun off a guy on the street. Plus, he shouldn’t even have a weapon."   

Ramirez-Olivo was in an apartment on Tuesday, October 1 with 17-year-old Stephanie Lopez Ramirez when, a CPD source said, his illegally acquired gun went off--hitting Stephanie in the arm and killing her. 

Under Illinois law, Ramirez-Olivo's possession of a firearm could be considered an "unlawful use of a weapon", which is a felony. While I think there's a strong argument that the law requiring every gun owner to have a Firearms Owner ID card and/or a concealed carry license is unconstitutional, it is still the law of the land in Illinois, and Kim Foxx could easily have charged Ramirez-Olivo for illegally possessing a firearm, even if she doesn't believe there's a strong enough case to charge him with involuntary manslaughter. 

Foxx's office, however, routinely declines to file charges against migrants, even when they're repeatedly arrested. The website CWB Chicago reported earlier today on the arrest of two Venezuelan migrants who were arrested for allegedly burglarizing a restaurant storage shed. The pair have been arrested ten times this year, but the vast majority of cases have been dropped by Cook County prosecutors. 

At the time of the [most recent] incident, [Oscar Garcia] Adrian was on pretrial release for retail theft, according to records. The shoplifting charges were filed after a TJ Maxx employee accused him of stealing a piece of luggage from the store’s Loop location on June 10. 

His earlier arrests were on allegations of battery in July, retail theft in May, retail theft in April, and theft in April. Prosecutors dropped all of those cases. 

[Jhoni Montes] Alexander’s court file shows he pleaded guilty to felony retail theft on September 17. In that case, he and an accomplice allegedly stole three pieces of luggage worth $1,634 from Macy’s on State Street in February. A CPD report said he told officers he was “stealing to go back to Venezuela.”

Records show he received a sentence of 54 days, which was satisfied entirely by the time he spent wearing an ankle monitor while the case was pending.

While on pretrial release for the Macy’s allegations, he was arrested in Harwood Heights for retail theft in April and in Chicago for obstruction of identification in July. Prosecutors dropped both of those cases.

The Democrats in charge of both the state and the city of Chicago routinely demand and impose new restrictions on lawful gun owners, but all too often they turn a blind eye to the prolific and violent offenders who are responsible for an outsized portion of both property crimes and crimes against persons. In that respect, Foxx's decision not to prosecute Ramirez-Olivo isn't unusual, but that doesn't make it any less unconscionable or inexcusable.