CHICAGO — A Chicago man with a decades-long criminal history who pleaded guilty Friday to pickpocketing three women on the CTA was sentenced to a year of probation, among the lightest sentences he’s received since the Reagan administration.
It’s also a better deal than he received for fraudulent credit card convictions in 2010, 2009, and 2007.
Prosecutors charged Guy Davis, 58, with multiple counts of felony identity theft and felony theft last September. He was accused of stealing from women at CTA stations by sneaking behind them and taking wallets out of their bags.
He allegedly targeted a 20-year-old woman at the Loyola Red Line station on August 29, 2022, and then used her credit cards to purchase nearly $400 in merchandise at Target and CVS stores.
Two days later, he took a 25-year-old woman’s wallet as she climbed stairs at the Grand Red Line station. That time, prosecutors say, he used the woman’s cards to make a purchase at 7-Eleven. He tried to use her card again at another convenience store, but the victim canceled her card after the first purchase.
A few days later, he allegedly stole a 53-year-old Georgia woman’s wallet as she boarded a train with her daughter at the Washington Blue Line station. The woman quickly realized her wallet was missing and closed her credit card accounts while on the train before they could be used.
According to prosecutors, surveillance cameras recorded the thefts and the majority of credit card transactions.
On Friday, Davis pleaded guilty to three counts of theft from a person and received 12 months probation from Judge Diana Kenworthy. Prosecutors dropped multiple counts of identity theft and theft in his plea deal.
The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County’s computer system lists 75 cases filed against Davis since 1986, primarily misdemeanors. As far as felonies go, he received probation for theft in 1985, five years in prison for theft in 1986, 18 months probation with six months of jail time for theft from a person in 1996, one and two years for violating orders of protection in 2005 and 2007 respectively, two years probation for unlawful use of a weapon in 2008, between two years and 30 months for fraudulent credit card use in 2007, 2009, and 2010, and three years for theft and another three years for ID theft in 2017.
So, despite his track record, the sentence he received on Friday is among the lightest ever given to him for felonies.
