Only days after posting bond, a Hobart man skipped out of a bail hearing Thursday for allegedly shooting at his estranged wife.
Now, a judge ordered an arrest warrant to put Ariel Ginjauma back in jail.
Ginjauma, aka Ariel Gomez, 44, formerly of Chicago was charged Nov. 15 with 10 felonies, including two counts of attempted murder.
The hearing Thursday was on whether to revoke bail on a prior domestic battery case, triggered by the latest case.
Deputy Prosecutor Jessica Arnold said prosecutors had a handful of videos showing Ariel Ginjauma shooting at Evelyn Ginjauma.
The Nov. 14 incident happened less than an hour after Evelyn Ginjauma was acquitted at her own trial for stabbing a woman, his business associate, on Dec. 29, 2022 in their Hobart basement.
Defense lawyer Mark Gruenhagen — who represented Ariel in the domestic battery case — said they were in the process of settling that case when the shooting happened.
No one was hurt in the shooting, he argued. Attempted murder “may be a bit overcharged,” the lawyer said.
He noted there hadn’t been any other charges since Nov. 14.
Earlier, a detective noted Evelyn reported her car titles had gone missing and someone broke a window in a car lot the former couple owned since Ariel got released.
That was a “civil matter,” Gruenhagen said, and there was no proof Ariel had anything to do with it. His client had shown up to court regularly before Thursday.
He asked to tinker with the bond — adding a curfew, or home detention and GPS monitoring.
Arnold noted Ariel appeared to point a gun at a 15-year-old girl’s head up the stairs at one point, before he tried to shoot her, then going after Evelyn.
“If that’s not attempted murder, I’m really not sure what is,” she said.
Judge Gina Jones pulled his bond and issued the arrest warrant. A prior felony conviction — for firing a gun in the air — meant he shouldn’t have had a gun. She also kept a no contact order for him.
Hobart Police responded at 4:25 p.m. Nov. 14 to a home on Lake View Drive. Ariel Ginjauma was caught on the doorbell video chasing and shooting at her as she ran toward the street.
Court records allege he pushed into the home and pointed a gun at a 15-year-old girl at the top of the stairs. After the girl bolted to a bathroom, he fired a shot in the house.
He then chased a screaming Evelyn outside toward the street, firing a shot. The magazine fell out. He went back to get it, before shooting at her at least four more times.
Previously, Ariel Ginjauma spent nearly 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, court filings show.
At 17, he was arrested in Chicago with four other teens after a man was killed during celebrations for the Bulls’ 1997 championship win. He was convicted in 1998.
The victim, Concepcion Diaz, 32, of Cicero, was shot while waiting for the bus at Diversey and Cicero Avenues. Ginjauma was released in 2018 after pleading guilty to firing a gun in the air once during the festivities.
Ginjauma, named as Gomez, sued disgraced Chicago Det. Reynaldo Guevara and the city of Chicago in federal court for wrongful conviction in 2018. That case is still pending.
mcolias@post-trib.com
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