Downers Grove carjacking leads to 30-year sentence for Chicago man

A former Chicago man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for hijacking a woman’s car at gunpoint from her garage in late 2019, prosecutors said.

Martavious Robinson, who was a juvenile at the time of the offense and was transferred to adult court at the state’s request and is now 21, appeared at his sentencing Monday afternoon in front of DuPage County Judge Michael Reidy, who handed down the sentence.

On June 28, 2023, after a two-day trial and about four hours of deliberations, a jury found Robinson guilty of one count of aggravated vehicular hijacking, according to a DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office news release.

Robinson’s co-defendants each previously entered a plea of guilty to one count of aggravated vehicular hijacking in front of Reidy, who sentenced each man to 40 years in prison, according to the release.

At 6:53 p.m. Nov. 30, 2019, Downers Grove police responded to a carjacking that had taken place on Prairie Avenue. An investigation found that the victims, a mother and her daughter who had come home for Thanksgiving from college, were sitting in their vehicle after pulling into the garage when they were approached by a masked, armed individual wearing a dark hoodie, later identified as Robinson. The man ordered the women out of their vehicle and drove off in their car, according to the release.

Further investigation into recent carjackings found that three individuals, Robinson Emanuel Embry, 24, and Daysean Washington-Davis, 23, both of Chicago, and Robinson, were involved in an armed carjacking in Warrenville on Dec. 13, 2019, as well as another carjacking in Downers Grove the same day in which the defendants carjacked at gunpoint a pregnant woman’s car from her driveway, according to the release.

Through the course of their investigation, authorities arrested Robinson on Dec. 13, 2019. He has remained in custody since that time. On Dec. 17, 2019, authorities took Washington-Davis into custody from his apartment and several hours later, authorities apprehended Embry in Chicago.

“In late 2019, Mr. Robinson and two other men, Daysean Washington-Davis and Emanuel Embry, terrorized DuPage County residents during a short-lived crime spree, carjacking three vehicles at gunpoint in two-weeks’ time,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in the release. “Violent crimes such as these have an incredibly crippling effect on not just the immediate victims, but the entire community, as well as leaving entire neighborhoods fearful for their personal safety. The 30-year sentence imposed today and the 40-year sentences imposed on Mr. Robinson’s co-defendants sends a loud and clear message to would-be offenders that violent crimes in DuPage County carry significant consequences.”