A Venezuelan migrant was sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to robbing concertgoers in the Loop during last year’s Lollapalooza, including one victim who he seriously injured by beating him with a scooter.
On August 4, 2024, revelers were on their way home from the festival’s final night when 24-year-old Edinson Yanez targeted them in at least two robberies.
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Around 11 p.m., Yanez allegedly crashed an electric scooter into a 26-year-old suburban man and took his gold chain in the 50 block of East Jackson Boulevard. Prosecutors claimed Yanez bit the man and assaulted him with the scooter, breaking two of his ribs.
While speaking with the victim, police discovered that other CPD officers had detained a suspect who reportedly robbed another man in the 300 block of South Dearborn Street, according to a police report.
In one case, two males in suburban Atlanta, ages 19 and 26, claimed Yanez grabbed one of them by the shirt and snatched a phone and necklace. He attempted but failed to remove a chain from the second man, according to prosecutors. Officers tracked the stolen phone’s position and found Yanez nearby.
Yanez was already on pretrial release for domestic violence charges at the time of the robberies.
Judge Mary Brosnahan cited the “severely injured” victim who was assaulted with a scooter and the randomness of the attacks on concertgoers as factors for keeping Yanez in jail.
On Thursday, Brosnahan sentenced Yanez to two concurrent seven-year jail terms after he pled guilty to two counts of robbery. With good behavior, he will be released after completing half of the sentence.
