CHICAGO — An 11-time convicted felon accused of burglarizing three Chicago restaurants last year cut a deal with prosecutors that reduced all three burglary charges to criminal damage to property, court records show. He’s now a 14-time convicted felon.
As a result of the deal, Larry Banks, 50, received three concurrent two-year sentences from Judge Lauren Edidin, and he was sent to Stateville Correctional Center on August 24. According to Illinois Department of Corrections records, he walked out the same day after receiving credit for time spent in Cook County jail and a 50% sentence reduction for good behavior.
The outcome is much more favorable for Banks than when he was convicted of burglarizing a restaurant in the 4800 block of North Broadway in 2011. He got 14 years for that one.
He got out of prison in May 2018 after serving half the time. Just seven months later, prosecutors charged him with burglarizing Little India restaurant, 1109 West Bryn Mawr. Police said fingerprints left inside the restaurant came back to Banks.
Court records show Banks fought the case for nearly three years, serving as his own attorney for at least some of the time. Prosecutors dropped the case on January 6, 2022.
The very next month, prosecutors accused him of burglarizing three more restaurants in February 2022.
Area Three detectives issued a community alert about a series of overnight break-ins at Uptown businesses that began on February 13 last year. The burglar broke windows with bricks or his feet and stole money from the cash registers, often at Asian restaurants.
During Bank’s bail hearing last year, prosecutors said surveillance videos showed Banks burglarizing three of those restaurants.
Late on February 17, Banks and another burglar broke two glass doors to enter DaNang Kitchen, 1019½ West Argyle, prosecutors said. They got away with $50 in coins.
A few hours later, Banks and another person used an object, possibly a rock, to break the glass door at China Cafe, 4818 North Sheridan, according to the initial charges. They got away with about $100.
And on February 21, 2022, Banks broke the front door of Immm Rice & Beyond, 4949 North Broadway, with a rock and forced the register open, taking cash, a prosecutor alleged.
The prosecutor last year said surveillance videos showed Banks carrying a drawstring bag with a 2020 census logo during all three break-ins. He had an identical bag when police arrested him, officials said.
Before catching the 14-year sentence in 2011, Banks had been sentenced to two terms of 30 months for theft in 2009; 18 months for damage to school property in 2009; three years for narcotics in 2007; two years for narcotics in 2005; 4-1/2 years for theft from a person in 2002; four years for burglary in 1999; seven years for narcotics in 1996; 28 months for narcotics in 1995; and five years for narcotics in 1992.