A man with a long criminal history pleaded guilty Thursday to robbing a musician of a $10,000 violin aboard a CTA Blue Line train in the Loop this spring.
Timothy Johnson, 39, pleaded guilty to robbery in exchange for a six-year sentence from Judge Stanley Sacks. The sentence will be cut in half with good behavior.
Prosecutors said Johnson was riding a Blue Line train near Clark-Lake on the evening of April 11 when he saw an opportunity: a violin case that 22-year-old musician Cyrus Spurlock was carrying as he rode to Wicker Park.
Johnson grabbed the case and fought off Spurlock’s resistance as CTA cameras rolled, prosecutors said. Police launched a search for the violin, which was handmade by Spurlock’s brother, even releasing images of it to the public, but there are no indications it has been found.
During an initial court hearing, a judge described Johnson’s behavior as a “blatant use of force” against “a random civilian.”
Johnson was already facing two felony retail theft cases at the time of the robbery. He pleaded guilty in those cases in July and received 24 months probation from Judge Eulalia De La Rosa.
Court records show Johnson also pleaded guilty in March to assaulting a CTA employee at the Logan Square Blue Line station. He received a 30-day jail term in that case. His history also includes an attempted robbery of a senior citizen.
