A Chicago woman whose broad grin in CTA surveillance footage helped put her behind bars is looking considerably less cheerful now that she’s been charged in a violent Red Line robbery.
Lemia Black, 25, faces charges of robbery and aggravated battery of a transit passenger following the January 5 attack aboard a Red Line train near Grand, according to court records. Black and accomplices approached a 23-year-old woman on the train around 10:10 p.m., beat her and stole her phone, prosecutors said.
CPD released surveillance images of the suspect in mid-January, including one showing her smiling broadly as she strolled down a subway platform, and asked the public to help identify her.
Surveillance video also recorded the attack as it unfolded, and prosecutors said Black later admitted to throwing the victim’s phone onto the train tracks. She claimed the confrontation stemmed from an ongoing dispute with the victim.
Black is a convicted gun offender who was already on parole for escaping electronic monitoring at the time of the alleged attack, officials said. The state has now revoked her parole and returned her to prison.
She is set to be released from state custody on August 22, at which point she will be transferred to the Cook County jail to await trial on the new charges by order of Judge Luciano Panici, Jr.
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