Prosecutors said Thursday that a 20-year-old man who was never issued a driver’s license and was once accused of fleeing police during a traffic stop plowed through a crowd crossing the road to the Guaranteed Tariff Field to get.
Condelarious Garcia faces four counts of serious reckless driving, a driver’s offense with a suspended driver’s license and three traffic violations in Tuesday night’s collision just steps from the stadium on the 300 block of West 35th Street.
According to authorities, Garcia was behind the wheel of the silver Acura sedan that seriously injured four pedestrians around 6:30 p.m. as they crossed 35th Street to the park entrance. A 64-year-old man was thrown headfirst into the Acura’s sunroof, prosecutors said.
“(Garcia) shows a willful disregard for other people. “The fact that his flight was more important than the safety of the person who was in his sunroof or the safety of those in the car with him,” Judge Charles Beach II said in setting bail.
Garcia, of the South Side New City neighborhood, was being held on $20,000 bail and was scheduled to be fitted with an ankle monitor if released.
During the roughly 15-minute hearing, which was streamed on YouTube, prosecutors described a violent clash near the main gates of White Sox Stadium on a game day and the frantic chase to arrest Garcia, but gave no clear reason for the Collision in which four people were seriously injured.
All four victims – a 51-year-old woman and three men, ages 24, 25 and 64 – were at the head of the group of pedestrians crossing 35th Street when they were struck by a speeding car at the curb as they neared the sidewalk, prosecutors said.
Victims were thrown into the air, including the 64-year-old, who landed in the sunroof, prosecutors said. A police dashcam captured the victim’s legs and feet dangling through the sunroof as she walked away from the scene, prosecutor Sarah Dale-Schmidt said in court. One of the Acura’s passengers pulled the man fully inside the car, she said.
After Garcia ignored flashing police lights pursuing him, state troopers performed a traffic maneuver that resulted in the Acura crashing into the concrete median of the Dan Ryan Expressway. Police dragged Garcia out of the driver’s seat and took him into custody.
Prosecutors found no possible cause of the accident and made no mention of drug or alcohol impairment. One of Garcia’s passengers told authorities that everyone in the car yelled at Garcia about the people on the street, but that Garcia ignored it, Dale-Schmidt said. The same passenger said the vehicle appeared to have had no problems braking or accelerating while driving with Garcia, authorities said.
Of the four victims, one person suffered a traumatic brain injury and “remains unresponsive and intubated,” Dale-Schmidt said.
The 64-year-old victim was identified by his family as Charles Janczy, a longtime IBM employee and Evanston resident who they described as a die-hard White Sox fan and season ticket holder. According to prosecutors and Janczy’s family, Janczy suffered broken ribs, spinal fractures, a broken leg and a dislocated thumb.
Despite his injuries, Janczy’s son Jerome told the Tribune on Thursday that his father was discharged from hospital earlier in the day. The younger Janczy, who was born and raised in Evanston before moving to California last year, recalled being shocked by the news of the accident but is now amazed at his father’s progress. Charles Janczy lived an active lifestyle that included running, bicycling, gardening, and attending Sox games.
“It could have been so much worse,” said Jerome Janczy. “I mean, my family describes the situation as a miracle. He was in the hospital for about two days and luckily didn’t need an operation. It’s incredible.”
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Jerome Janczy said his father told him he was waiting to cross the street in front of the stadium, as he had done many times before, but as he and others were crossing the street, a car allegedly “came him out of nowhere ‘ and hit him. Jerome Janczy described his father’s recovery as “hopeful but uncertain”.
“It just felt so unfair that my father was the victim of something like this,” Janczy said. “He’s one of those people who would never wish harm on anyone, always relentlessly kind and, frankly, also very selfless.”
According to prosecutors, Garcia had no criminal record, but never held a driver’s license and was twice actively disqualified from driving for failing to appear for court summonses. In one case, Garcia was charged with the misdemeanor of fleeing and attempting to evade officers, and driving without a license and insurance. Garcia’s court-appointed attorney said he was a package handler and had a nine-month-old son.
Beach expressed concern about Garcia’s previous missed court hearings and his refusal to follow lawful orders in setting bail. “Anyone who has driven down this street during a Sox game is painfully aware of the number of pedestrians that are there,” Beach said.
Garcia is expected to return to court next week.