A 10-time convicted felon has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for robbing a woman on a CTA Blue Line train while threatening to kill her with a broken bottle.
Prosecutors said Geronimo Espinoso, 34, attacked a 29-year-old woman as she rode a train near the Cicero station around 6:20 a.m. on September 24, 2024. He grabbed her purse, the woman fought back, and they tumbled to the floor of the train, with Espinoso ending up on top of her.
Espinoso pulled out a broken bottle and took the woman’s wallet while threatening to stab her if she resisted or went to the police, prosecutors claimed. The woman was cut during the struggle but was not seriously injured.
A CTA surveillance camera operator spotted Espinoso when he returned to the Cicero station shortly after the robbery. Officers tried to arrest him, but he tried to escape by jumping onto the train tracks. Cops chased him down on the tracks and took him into custody.
Espinoso has pleaded guilty to armed robbery before Judge Charles Burns, who sentenced him to 10 years. Under state law, good-behavior credits will cut that term in half. Espinoso is expected to be paroled in March 2029.
His criminal history stretches back nearly two decades, with Illinois Department of Corrections records listing prior convictions for, among other things, robbery in 2010 and 2017, burglary in 2009, two burglaries in 2010, and two escapes from electronic monitoring.
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