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Officers in Des Plaines tried to pull over Esquivel in a car he was driving April 20 on East Prairie Avenue, according to separate felony charges, but the 18-year-old motorist fled and struck a squad car.

Then, on the morning of May 4, Esquivel and an accomplice stole a woman’s phone at gunpoint as she went on a morning run on Beechwood Avenue in Wilmette, according to Campbell. The woman told police two masked men, possibly teens, emerged from a black Hyundai sedan.

Esquivel’s accomplice on this robbery, who he identified as 18-year-old Samnang Toem, demanded the woman unlock the phone and enter her Apple ID, the prosecutor said. When the woman was unable to remember, they got frustrated and Esquivel, the driver, allegedly told Toem to “just grab the phone” before they fled.

Wilmette police later tracked down the Hyundai to an earlier carjacking in the 4600 block of North Walcott Avenue in Chicago and found footage of the two people who later dumped it in the 3900 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, in which Esquivel identified himself and Toem, the prosecutor said.

After waiving his rights against self-incrimination, Esquivel “related that he likes stealing cars and he was up late the night before and into the morning stealing cars with his friend Sam,” Campbell said.

“[Esquivel] further related that Sam was upset because his mother took his phone and they decided to rob someone of theirs,” the prosecutor said.

At the time of the Wilmette armed robbery, Toem, of Evanston, was out on pretrial release while awaiting trial in connection with the Dec. 10, 2023, armed robbery of a delivery driver in the 2200 block of Foster Street.

Toem was later ordered jailed in connection with a separate armed robbery and he was booked into the Cook County Jail on May 10, according to the sheriff’s office. His next court appearance is scheduled for May 23.

Esquivel was working with a different accomplice during the Skokie armed robbery. Skokie police were called to the 7-Eleven, 7950 Crawford Ave., for a report of an armed robbery that took place around 12:30 a.m. on May 14.

The clerk told police two masked figures came into the store, according to the prosecutor. When he asked them to take their masks off, Esquivel pulled out a gun, racked a round and pointed it at the store employee, demanding cash.

When the clerk struggled to open the register, Esquivel told him, “I’ll knock your —- back.” Esquivel and his accomplice, who he identified as “Sergio,” then fled the store while flashing gang signs, according to Campbell.

The prosecutor said Esquivel was taken into custody following a pursuit that began when officers with the Glencoe Public Safety Department tried to pull him over in another stolen Hyundai on the southbound Edens Expressway in response to an alert from a Flock Safety automated license plate reader camera at Tower Road.

Esquivel exited the freeway and drove through Lincolnwood before driving into Skokie and abandoning the car in the 4900 block of Estes Avenue in Skokie, where he was later found hiding under a bush. He later told police that car was the fourth one that he had stolen that night, according to the prosecutor.

“He has clearly shown that he is a volatile and violent individual with little regard to the law, has ran from the police on multiple occasions, as was noted in the other cases, even running into a police car as he fled,” Campbell told the judge, arguing against the defense’s request for house arrest in Waukegan

“[Esquivel] has made statements that he hangs out with Latin King gang members, he gets guns from Latin King gang members, he sells stolen cars to Latin King gang members and I don’t think, given his behavior, an ankle monitor would stop him from stealing cars — and he’s stolen multiple cars — and using them in armed robberies,” he said.

Cook County Associate Judge Anthony Calabrese determined there were no conditions of pretrial release that could mitigate the threat to the community that Esquivel poses.

“We have an individual who, in broad daylight,” Calabrese said, “in Wilmette, commits an armed robbery, in which a citizen is simply out on her own, enjoying a jog when a stolen sedan pulls up — and the individuals get out and they point a silver handgun to her head.”

Esquivel is due back in court June 13 to be indicted.

“The raw number of cases, the allegations here and the use of the firearms in such a careless and reckless manner is clearly a danger to the community,” the judge said.

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