Members of Violent Street Crew Convicted of Armed Robbery in Jewelry Heist

Caption: Juan Ramos, 21, of Joliet (top), an alleged accomplice, Saul Sandival, 20 of Cicero (bottom) are both self-admitted and documented members of the Gangster Two-Six street gang, Riverside police say.

A Joliet man and his pal were both found guilty of robbing the owners of a jewelry booth at gunpoint after a five-day jury trial in Cook County for an August 2014 west suburban jewelry heist.

Juan Ramos, 21, of Joliet, and his pal, Saul Sandival, 20, of Cicero, were convicted of armed robbery on March 20, where they were being tried together in front of Judge Gregory Ginex at the Maybrook Courthouse.

The two are believed to be members of a Gangster Two-Six street crew that targeted jewelry store owners by following them home and then robbing them as they stepped out of their cars.

On Aug. 3, 2014, Riverside Police responded to a 911 call reporting an armed robbery. The victims stated that two men wearing masks had robbed them in their Riverside driveway at gunpoint.

Police said the robbers attacked the victims by pushing them to the ground and robbing them of over $30,000 in cash and jewelry. One of the victims had a gold chain ripped from his throat.

The men also threatened to shoot and kill a 76-year-old woman who came out of her house when she heard the commotion in her driveway. The woman was also in the jewelry sales business, investigators later learned.

Both men fled to a waiting getaway car parked a block away from the robbery scene.

It was through an extensive, around-the-clock, three-day investigation where police pieced together the alleged jewelry bandits’ trail through surveillance video from several different business along 47th Street and Ashland Avenue in Chicago, to the scene of the crime in the 100 block of East Burlington in Riverside.

Security video from Swap-O-Rama and the Berwyn Fruit Market, as well as the suspects’ own cell phone usage from cellular towers, led to their arrest three days later.

Police said both men were self-admitted and documented street gang members.

Sandival is also accused of committing a vicious street robbery in November 2014 while out on bond, where he allegedly threw a woman to the ground and beat her before snatching her purse. He was arrested by Chicago police just a few blocks from the robbery scene.

Ramos also posted 10 percent of his $75,000 bail in the Riverside case. Shortly after being released from Cook County Jail in August 2014, he was picked up by federal agents on an immigration detainer. Ramos has since remained in custody.

The Two-Six gang has a toe-hold on the east side of Joliet near Marion and Hunter, according to ChicagoGangs.org. The gang is identified by its Playboy Bunny graffiti, with one bent ear. Sometimes the bunny is wearing a hood.

Ramos had been staying with his Two-Six cronies in Cicero for about a week when they carried out the robbery, Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel said.

Both men are said to have extensive criminal histories including other violent acts, including open Chicago cases involving victims in the jewelry industry.

Thirty-minutes before their trial got underway last week, prosecutors offered Ramos and Sandival a 10-year sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to the Riverside armed robbery, Weitzel said.

Ramos and Sandival opted instead for a jury trial, where both were handed a guilty verdict after jurors deliberated for four hours. The alleged street crew members now face 21 to 45 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, of which they’ll be required to serve 85 percent of their sentences.