Man, woman accused of carjacking, crashing three vehicles across western suburbs

Two people have been charged with carjacking and crashing three vehicles in Hanover Park and Itasca on Saturday.

Pretrial release was denied on Tuesday for Ricardo Ortega, 25, of the 5600 block of Pebblebeach Drive in Hanover Park, and Alicia Merlin-Barrera, 24, of the 400 block of Palatine Road, Palatine, according to a news release from the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office.

Each is charged with two counts of vehicular hijacking, one count of aggravated unlawful restraint, one count of aggravated reckless driving causing great bodily harm and multiple misdemeanors, including battery and criminal damage to property.

Hanover Park police were notified at 11:58 a.m. Saturday of a crash involving a hijacked vehicle at Arlington Drive and County Farm Road. The victim said she and two other women were in the car, and Ortega and Merlin-Barrera came up and asked for a ride to a nearby train station.

The victim agreed to give them the ride. As she was driving, Merlin-Barrera allegedly told the driver to stop and reached from the back seat for the car key, struggling with the driver.

Ortega allegedly began hitting one of the other women about her head and face.

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