A man who teamed up with a woman to rob four 7-Eleven stores within an hour last week was AWOL in two other criminal cases and also participated in the looting of a Mag Mile cosmetics store during riots on August 10, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Dorian Skipper, 38, of Blue Island, is charged with four counts of robbery, burglary, and looting.
But, to tell the story, maybe we should begin at the beginning.
On December 27, 2019, Skipper was accused of stealing $1,975 worth of perfume and cologne from the Ulta Beauty store at 430 North Michigan. Prosecutors charged him with felony retail theft, and a judge released him on a recognizance bond.
Then, on August 6, police responded to a 7-Eleven store at 1027 West Addison across Wrigley Field. A clerk called police after a group of six to eight people raided the store for alcohol and cigarettes. Skipper took a man’s bike outside the store while threatening to shoot him, Assistant State’s Attorney Lorraine Scaduto said Tuesday.
Cops found Skipper and the bike near the Fullerton Red Line station a few minutes later, according to a CPD report. But the victim refused to assist with robbery charges, and Skipper was only charged with theft, Scaduto said. Skipper was released on another recognizance bond the next day.
Just three days later, while on bail for the bike incident and the Ulta Beauty retail theft cases, Skipper was caught on video as he and dozens of others looted the same Ulta store around 3:30 a.m. on August 10, Scaduto said.
One of the officers who arrested Skipper in the bike case allegedly recognized him when detectives released surveillance images of the Ulta looters. But Skipper stopped showing up for his court cases, and he remained at-large.
During his bond hearing Tuesday, Skipper vigorously defended himself against the Ulta allegations when Scaduto said he was identified partly by distinctive facial tattoos.
“I have no tattoos. Look at my face,” he said. “You can see me now. None.”
Scadutto, suggesting that the tattoos may have been temporary, said Skipper had identified himself in surveillance images of the looting and told an officer, “I can’t deny that.
Over the weekend, prosecutors said 21-year-old Jessica Short was Skipper’s accomplice in last Thursday’s convenience store robbery spree. Police arrested Short on Thursday night in the West Loop as she allegedly drove an SUV that the robbers were seen using.
During Short’s bond court appearance, prosecutors said she identified her co-offender to police. And while she was in custody, authorities recorded phone calls between her and Skipper in which both implicated themselves in the robberies, Scaduto said.
The duo allegedly took about $10,000 worth of tobacco products, alcohol, and cash from the four stores. Employees were pushed and threatened as Skipper went behind the store counters to collect inventory, Scaduto said.
They are accused of robbing stores at 343 North LaSalle in River North; 567 West Lake in the West Loop; and at 3600 West Belmont and 3005 North Pulaski in Avondale. The crimes took place in about an hour, starting just before 8 a.m. January 14. All of the robberies were captured on surveillance video.
Chicago police said a fugitive apprehension unit arrested Skipper on Monday.
Judge David Navarro ordered Skipper held in lieu of $250,000 bail for the robbery and looting charges. Skipper is being held without bail for violating the terms of bond in the earlier cases.
