A man who mugged a woman as she left an Edgewater business this month may have a hard time explaining away an incriminating piece of evidence: The cash he stole just happened to have the victim’s name written on it, prosecutors said.
The woman was walking on the 1600 block of West Granville around 9 a.m. December 3 when another woman hit her and tried to take her purse. She managed to hold onto her handbag until the woman’s male accomplice punched her and ripped it away. They got away with the bag, her phone, credit cards, and some cash that the victim had written her own name on.
Prosecutors said the victim took note of the license plate number on the robbers’ getaway car and called police.
Meanwhile, the woman’s husband began tracking her stolen phone, and police went to a cellular store on the West Side where it was pinging. When they arrived, they saw the robbers’ getaway car parked out front and 29-year-old Maurice Leonard walking out of the store, prosecutors said.
They stopped him and discovered that he was carrying cash with the victim’s name written on it, Assistant State’s Attorney John Gnilka said.
Leonard was AWOL from electronic monitoring on a pending stolen motor vehicle case at the time of the robbery, according to Gnilka.
A public defender said Leonard has five children and works as a delivery driver.
Judge Maryam Ahmad set bail in the robbery case at $350,000. She also ordered Leonard held without bail on two escape warrants and the pending stolen motor vehicle case.
Gnilka said Leonard was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm in 2018; narcotics in 2015 theft in 2013; felony retail theft in 2012; and robbery in 2010.