The getaway driver for an armed robbery crew that targeted Chicago’s beloved tamale ladies received a nine-year prison sentence on Tuesday. Demetreon Glover, 20, already had an extensive juvenile record when he teamed up with two unidentified teenagers to rob the food vendors at gunpoint in October 2023, prosecutors said.
Cops arrested the entire crew after Glover (helpfully) crashed their getaway car outside the Cook County Jail entrance.
CPD said Glover piloted a stolen 2019 Hyundai Tucson while two boys, ages 14 and 15, jumped out to rob the tamale vendors at gunpoint.
Prosecutors said they robbed one tamale stand in the 4600 block of South Paulina and another in the 4800 block of South Paulina within five or ten minutes, starting around 7:16 a.m. on October 27, 2023. One of the juveniles displayed a gun during both holdups, officials said.
About 45 minutes after the first robbery, Chicago police officers in the 9th District spotted a car that matched the description of a vehicle used in “several” armed robberies.
They chased the Hyundai until it crashed in a Cook County parking lot in the 3000 block of South California, across from the jail. Glover bailed out of the driver’s seat and ran, but the police caught him and the two boys steps from the county jail entrance.
Someone inside the car tossed a gun from the vehicle as police were chasing them, prosecutors said. The police recovered it and found its serial number had been obliterated.
Glover initially told cops that he was a 14-year-old named James Staples, his arrest report said. The police believed him, going so far as to ship him off to the county’s juvenile detention center. But the county shipped him back to CPD after a fingerprint check revealed his real name and age, the report said.
Officials said Glover’s juvenile record included three convictions for firearms offenses.
He pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of armed robbery before Judge Adrienne Davis. She ordered him to serve concurrent nine-year terms and submit DNA for indexing by law enforcement, according to court records.
State law requires Glover to serve 50% of his sentence, less 716 days of credit he earned in jail, before he can be released.
The outcomes of the juveniles’ cases are not available to the public.
