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| Amarri Bowens was sentenced for robbing three people aboard a Red Line train. | CPD; File |
A Boystown menace who racked up 77 arrests between his 18th and 23rd birthdays will be leaving town for a while. Amarri Bowens, now 27, pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in three robberies aboard a Red Line train in 2018. Judge Angela Petrone sentenced him to three eight-year terms to be served concurrently. He will receive 277 days credit for time served awaiting the outcome of his case.
Bowens and three other men approached passengers on a northbound train as it neared the Fullerton station around 12:45 a.m. on March 30th, 2018, police said.
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| The four robbers are seen in CTA surveillance images | CPD |
A 22-year-old man was punched in the face and robbed by the men as one of them held a hand inside their pocket as if he had a gun. A 19-year-old man was robbed by the same crew but was not injured, and a 41-year-old man told police that the men took his property with a threat of force, but they did not harm him.
Bowens was arrested more than a week later when sharp-eyed cops working patrol in Boystown saw him in the 3400 block of North Halsted Street.
Bowens on Tuesday pleaded guilty to one count of robbery; one count of robbery—indicating the presence of a firearm, and one count of aggravated battery of a transit employee. Several additional felony counts were dropped in exchange for his plea.
In 2016, Bowens was arrested in Evergreen Park after he pulled a utility knife during an altercation and yelled “I’m tired of m*ther f*ckers thinking I’m playing,” according to court records. At the time he had just ended parole after serving four years for burglary. County court records show he has amassed 112 criminal cases since 2008—and that’s not counting the Red Line robbery charges.
Still awaiting trial in the train robbery case is 24-year-old Denzel Boykin. Boykin has been in the Pinckneyville Correctional Center since last April when the state revoked his parole for unlawful possession of a stolen motor vehicle due to his arrest in the Red Line robberies. Boykin was turned in on Easter Sunday 2018 by a relative who works as a Chicago police officer.
Two other men who were involved in the hold-ups were never charged.
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