South Side man pleads innocent to three charges

YOUNGSTOWN -- A 28-year-old South Side man accused of firing a gun toward a car, in which his 3-year-old daughter sat, pleaded innocent to misdemeanor child endangering and two weapons charges.
Steven Stokes of East Judson Avenue appeared in municipal court Wednesday to enter the pleas. Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. ordered cash or surety bonds totaling $4,500.
City police had seen Stokes firing a revolver at the ground near his Oldsmobile Regency parked in an East Ravenwood Avenue driveway around 5:35 p.m. Tuesday. He held the revolver in his right hand and a liquor bottle in his left, police reports show.
Besides the child, four other people were in the car.
Stokes fled, dropping his gun on the sidewalk as he tried to place it in a pocket, police said. He was later arrested on East Lucius Avenue.
Assistant City Prosecutor Ben Joltin said Stokes, who uses various aliases, has felony convictions in Chicago for robbery and drug abuse and is on parole in Illinois.
Besides the endangering and weapons charges, Stokes also faces an open-container citation.