Chicago — A Cook County judge has sentenced a Chicago man to a whopping 21-year sentence for robbing a convenience store at gunpoint while he was on electronic monitoring for allegedly robbing another store.
Kameron Stevenson, 20, pleaded guilty to armed robbery with a firearm and received the lengthy sentence from Judge Mary Brosnahan on Monday. Prosecutors agreed to drop charges in the first robbery.
In the dismissed case, Stevens allegedly went behind a store counter and fought with the cashier for control of the cash register on May 31, 2021. At one point, Stevenson allegedly put his hand inside his hoodie pocket as if he had a gun and repeatedly asked the clerk, “Do you want to die?”
He then picked up the register and began to walk out with it. But the cashier confronted him again, and Stevenson threw the cash register at the employee and ran away, prosecutors said. The entire incident was captured on video.
Stevenson posted a $2,500 bail deposit and went home on electronic monitoring.
Everything went swimmingly for about three months. Then, on December 2, 2021, Stevenson allegedly wrapped aluminum foil around his electronic monitoring bracelet to block its tracking system.
He walked to a convenience store in the 6000 block of South Kedzie, pointed a gun at the clerk’s face, and tried to take the cash register, prosecutors said.
In a moment of déjà vu, Stevenson struggled with the clerk and dropped the register several times on his way out the door, but he managed to get away with the machine this time.
Surveillance video allegedly showed him and an accomplice opening the register in an alley and then going their separate ways. Cops arrested Stevenson about an hour later when they saw him on the street and noticed he looked like the robber. Officers said he was carrying a loaded 9-millimeter handgun and had a foil-wrapped ankle monitor strapped to his leg.
Stevenson was convicted of armed robbery as a juvenile in 2019 for robbing a CTA passenger while armed with a BB gun.
The 21-year sentence will be reduced by 50% for good behavior. Brosnahan also gave him credit for 425 days spent in jail before pleading and 280 days of work credits, according to court records. His parole date was not posted on the Illinois Department of Corrections website as of Thursday morning.
