A 37-year-old man with 10 felony convictions jumped from a third-floor window and hurt both of his legs while trying to escape Chicago police during an alleged burglary in South Shore, according to authorities. Martel Brown was taken to a hospital and later charged with burglary, marking his third arrest in the city since he was paroled from prison in January.
Chicago police responded on August 5 to the 2000 block of East 68th Street after a woman reported that a man with face tattoos had kicked in her apartment's front door, according to CWB Chicago. A witness to the burglary provided police with Ring camera video, per the outlet's account of the CPD report. When officers arrived at the building, they allegedly caught Brown in the act of burglarizing the woman's home and saw a ladder leaning toward an open window at the back of the building, according to the arrest report cited by the outlet.
Prosecutors said Brown then jumped from a third-floor window to the ground in an apparent attempt to flee. He suffered injuries to both legs and was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was reported to be in good condition. Police recovered more than a dozen pieces of jewelry, phones, and other property from Brown, and multiple other residents in the building reported that their apartments had also been burglarized that day.
A Long Criminal History Predates the Arrest
Illinois Department of Corrections records show Brown has 10 felony convictions, the same report notes. He was paroled on January 16 after serving time for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and he was on parole during a string of alleged 2023 burglaries when he was charged in a burglary spree across Logan Square and Lakeview, according to the outlet's reporting. His record also includes three burglary convictions from 2023, a burglary conviction from 2018, and stolen-vehicle convictions from 2010 and 2008.
Brown's contacts with the justice system continued after his January release. On March 31, Chicago police were called to the 7100 block of South East End Avenue after a man reported tracking his stolen vehicle there, and that man identified Brown as the person driving it, per the CPD report cited by the outlet. Weeks later, on April 25, police arrested Brown after stopping a stolen Hyundai Sonata on the 7900 block of South Luella Avenue and finding him behind the wheel — though prosecutors declined to approve felony charges in that case. Brown was separately charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass to a vehicle on March 31, but both of those vehicle-trespass cases were dropped in May after he failed to appear for his first court date on April 23.
What Illinois Law Says About the Burglary Charge
Under 720 ILCS 5/19-1, burglary of a building causing property damage is classified as a Class 2 felony in Illinois, punishable by three to seven years in state prison and fines up to $25,000, according to the Illinois General Assembly's statute. Since Illinois eliminated cash bail in September 2023, prosecutors can petition under Section 110-6.1 of the Illinois Code of Criminal Procedure, part of the Pretrial Fairness Act, to deny pretrial release if a defendant poses a real and present threat to public safety or if a prior felony history mandates non-probationable imprisonment.
Brown's parole status also puts him in front of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, which can revoke Mandatory Supervised Release without a criminal conviction if a condition violation is proven at a hearing decided by a preponderance of the evidence. That process begins with a preliminary probable cause finding before moving to a final revocation hearing, according to the board's rules. It remains unclear whether prosecutors have secured a detention order in Brown's case or when the board's revocation hearing might be scheduled.
South Shore's Pattern of Break-Ins
The 2000 block of East 68th Street falls within CPD's 3rd District, known as Grand Crossing, which covers South Shore, Hyde Park, Woodlawn, and Englewood under Commander John Cleggett and operates out of a station on South Cottage Grove Avenue. The neighborhood has seen repeated entryway break-ins in recent years. In September 2024, a concealed-carry license holder shot an intruder in the leg as he tried to crawl through her daughter's bedroom window on the 2300 block of East 69th Street, a case Hoodline previously covered — that intruder was also hospitalized at University of Chicago Medical Center.
Area One detectives issued a community alert in January after a series of daytime residential burglaries in South Shore and Grand Crossing, where intruders forced entry through rear doors on nearby blocks including South Merrill and South Cornell avenues, according to CBS Chicago. South Shore's property crime index runs 52% above the national average, with overall neighborhood crime 48% higher than the citywide figure, per a July report from DoorProfit. Commercial corridors haven't been spared either — a gas station on the 7600 block of South Jeffery Boulevard was damaged in a pre-dawn crash-and-grab break-in in July, marking its third or fourth such attempt this year, as Hoodline reported at the time.
Citywide, the trend runs in the opposite direction. Chicago police recorded 6,130 burglaries in 2025, a 20% drop from the 7,654 reported in 2024 and an 18% decline from 2023, according to CPD's CompStat data. A July report from the Council on Criminal Justice found residential burglaries in Chicago fell 52% between 2019 and mid-2026, even as nonresidential burglaries surged 132% year-over-year in early 2026. Even against that citywide decline, South Shore residents continue to report the kind of high-profile, entryway break-ins that led to Brown's arrest.
