A Chicago man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after he shot a Lyft driver during a botched carjacking attempt on the South Side. The case began in the 7500 block of South Dorchester Avenue in Grand Crossing.
According to CWB Chicago, Milons was riding as a passenger in the Lyft on July 10, 2024, when he pulled out a gun and ordered the driver out of the car. Prosecutors said Milons threatened to shoot the 31-year-old driver, who fought back rather than comply. During the ensuing struggle, Milons shot the driver and fled the scene. The driver survived his wounds.
Police arrested Milons three weeks later, and the driver later identified him as the offender in a police lineup, the outlet reported.
A Woodlawn Carjacking
On August 1, 2024, Milons carjacked a 28-year-old woman in the 6500 block of South Vernon Avenue in Woodlawn.
Police found the woman's car shortly after the carjacking, and she later recognized Milons as one of the men who had taken it, per the same account. That identification, paired with the Lyft driver's lineup pick, helped tie Milons to both incidents.
Judge Cites a Pattern of Failed Interventions
Judge Diana Kenworthy reviewed Milons' juvenile record before handing down her sentence and described him as having an extensive criminal background. That record included armed robbery and gun possession in 2021, aggravated domestic battery in 2021, and criminal trespass to a vehicle in 2023, the outlet reported. Milons also received a juvenile incarceration sentence for armed carjacking in January 2024 — just months before the Lyft shooting.
Kenworthy noted that Milons had five violent offenses on his record, all but one involving firearms. “Probation didn't work. Juvenile court didn't work,” she wrote, according to CWB Chicago's report. She sentenced him to concurrent terms of 15 years for aggravated battery by firearm and 10 years for vehicular hijacking, with the same court proceeding also resulting in a separate 10-year sentence in another carjacking case.
Sentence Terms and a Possible Records Error
The 15-year sentence requires Milons to serve 85% of the term, while the 10-year sentence requires 50% service, meaning the longer sentence will effectively govern his time behind bars. With credit for time already spent in Cook County jail, the outlet's calculation puts Milons at just over 10 years remaining to serve.
That estimate, however, doesn't line up with a separate record. The Illinois Department of Corrections' public inmate search lists Milons' parole date as September 11, 2031 — a date that would place his release roughly five years after admission to IDOC custody, substantially sooner than what 85% service of the 15-year sentence would require. The outlet's assessment is that the listed date appears to be a clerical error, and it says it is checking with the Illinois Department of Corrections about the discrepancy and plans to publish a separate report if the agency confirms Milons would actually serve closer to five years.
Federal guidance on carjacking, published by the Metropolitan Police Department, advises drivers confronted by an armed carjacker to give up the vehicle and get away from the area as quickly as possible rather than resist.
