Five Armed Robberies Linked To Evanston Man On Probation: FBI

EVANSTON, IL — An Evanston man has been accused of carrying out a string of armed robberies in the north suburbs while on supervised release following his conviction on federal counterfeiting charges.

Mario Banks Jr., 24, of the 1600 block of Pitner Avenue, has been in federal custody since his arrest in March by police investigating a Feb. 17 shooting in a Touhy Avenue parking lot, according to an FBI agent investigating the case.

Last month, a federal grand jury returned a six-count indictment charging Banks with robbing two gas stations in Lincolnwood and Skokie at gunpoint between Nov. 4, 2018, and Feb. 19, 2019.

Investigators believe Banks carried out five armed robberies during that time period, including the parking lot robbery and shooting, according to an affidavit from the FBI agent, Tenzin Atsatsang. So far, Banks has only been indicted in connection with three of them.

In the first incident, a masked gunman, later identified as Banks by store staff, entered the Bucky's Express Mobil gas station at 6401 N. Cicero Ave. in Lincolnwood shortly after 6 a.m. and demanded the clerk "give me all the money," according to Atsatsang.

After the robber grabbed about $200 and stuffed it into his pocket, the store's manager and clerk followed him outside and saw him cross Devon Avenue and head into an alley on the east side of an apartment building in the 6300 block of North Cicero Avenue, the affidavit said.

Cell phone location data also placed Banks within a few blocks of the scene of the robbery, according to the FBI. The day before, witnesses saw a man later identified as Banks defecating in the same alley the robber had fled into around 8 a.m. the day before. One of the witnesses described Banks' license plate and identified him based on a photo, according to the agent.

On Dec. 3, 2018, investigators believe Banks carried out another robbery with an accomplice. A person with previous prostitution convictions reported that they had been robbed at gunpoint while at the Hawthorn Suites at 1200 Bank Drive in Schaumburg. The victim told investigators they were standing outside the hotel when a silver sedan with two people inside pulled up, according to Atsatsang.

The driver pulled the person into the front passenger seat while a man in the back seat wrapped his arm around the victim's throat, investigators were told. The driver passed a handgun to the rear passenger, who demanded the key to the victim's hotel room. The person told investigators the robbers went into their room and stole $250 from inside their bag, according to the agent's affidavit.

At first, the victim told police they had never met the two robbers. But later, the person with multiple prostitution convictions told investigators they had been communicating with the driver of the vehicle by text message before the incident, Atsantsang said. The driver used Banks' phone number and sent a picture that appeared to show Banks.

The second gas station robbery Banks is charged with conducting took place around 7:30 a.m. Feb. 16 at a Shell gas station at 3301 Howard St. in Skokie, according to the agent's affidavit.

The clerk working at the time told investigators a masked man entered the gas station, pointed a gun at him and told him to open the register. The robber then walked behind the counter and took about $305 from the register before leaving the store walking west on Howard Street.

Video surveillance from the intersection and a business to the south of the Shell station showed a gold or light tan Chevrolet Malibu with a rear spoiler and sticker in the window driving around the station before the robbery and leaving the scene afterwards.

Later that day, Skokie police sent out a bulletin to nearby police departments describing the incident and including photos of the masked gunmen and the Chevy. Officers from Evanston recognized the car from past interactions with the owner, an Evanston resident, and found the car that same day parked in the 600 block of Hull Terrace, according to the agent.

The next day, Chicago police were dispatched shortly before 2 p.m. to the parking lot of a car repair business in the 2500 block of W. Touhy Avenue, where a 34-year-old man had just been shot during a robbery, authorities said. The victim later identified Banks as the gunman.

"Don't be stupid, give me all your jewelry and everything inside your pockets," Banks said after walking up to the man's car in the lot. The man in the car took off his watches and two necklaces and threw them onto the passenger floor.

Then, when Banks was looking away, the victim told investigators he tried to grab the gun and wound up getting shot in his hand and leg during the struggle, according to the FBI agent and a police account of the incident.

The robber fled, getting into an older gold or tan vehicle, and driving away south on Rockwell Avenue. Atsatsang said a witness at a nearby business described seeing the robber fleeing the scene in a gold Malibu with a license plate nearly identical to the one seen on surveillance driving around the site of the robbery in Skokie the day before.

According to the agent's affidavit, the man who was shot told police he recognized Banks as the person he had seen the night before at a convenience store in the 6900 block of North Western Avenue.

Surveillance video reviewed by investigators revealed footage of Banks and the victim talking together while waiting in line at a nearby business. Banks had approached the man and asked him where he purchased the jewelry he was wearing, the victim recalled.

Bucky's Express Mobil in Lincolnwood was robbed again shortly before 6:30 a.m. on Feb. 19, the FBI agent said. The manager told investigators a man in a mask and a hood came in, brandished a black revolver and demanded money. He grabbed about $278 from the tray of the cash register and ran out of the store.

According to the affidavit, the manager reported seeing the robber run across Devon Avenue and into the same alley east of Cicero Avenue, getting into a gold sedan described as a Chevy Malibu or an Impala. The same car was spotted sitting outside the business around 5:15 a.m. when the manager arrived for work, investigators were told. A customer who witnessed the robbery said the gunman got into a gold sedan with a rear spoiler.

Red light camera footage showed a gold Malibu with a rear spoiler and a matching sticker headed southbound on Cicero Avenue and turning right onto westbound Peterson Avenue shortly after 6:30 a.m., the FBI agent said.

Skokie police pulled over the Malibu on Feb. 21 based on its expired registration sticker, according to Atsatsang. At that time, the driver was identified as Banks, and the passenger was identified as the vehicle's registered owner, who was not named and has not been charged.

Chicago police arrested Banks March 19 on suspicion of his involvement in the Touhy Avenue shooting.

Court records show the six-count indictment returned June 20 was not the first time Banks has faced felony charges.

In November 2013, he was arrested while carrying a loaded revolver on a bicycle near Evanston Township High School after an abortive attempt to flee police. He pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a weapon in exchange for a one-year sentence, according to prosecutors.

Evanston police arrested him again on an ammunition possession charge in December 2014, the same month he was paroled for the earlier firearm offense — and the same month the Secret Service discovered $880 in counterfeit currency after carrying out a search warrant on Banks' basement room.

"At this point, [Banks] unquestionably understood that criminal conduct came with consequences and he had an opportunity and motivation to turn away from criminal activities," Assistant State's Attorney Eric Pruitt said in a 2017 sentencing memorandum. "Instead while on parole for his weapons conviction in 2015, the defendant decided to begin counterfeiting and selling United States currency."

The investigation into Banks' counterfeit operation began in October 2014, when one of his friends was arrested for passing fake money at a Burger King, according to prosecutors. The friend told Evanston police Banks had been manufacturing counterfeit bills and selling them, explaining he had seen Banks printing off sheets of counterfeit notes on an inkjet printer in the basement of Banks' parents house.

Banks was indicted Feb. 18, 2016, on one count of counterfeiting, but he denied the charges. He entered a plea of not guilty and took the case to trial.

In February 2017, a federal jury found Banks guilty following a brief trial, according to court records. In August 2017, he was sentenced to four months in U.S. Marshal custody followed by three years of supervised release, with the first six months served by community confinement. He also had to forfeit the two inkjet printers he was found to have used to make fake currency.

According to his federal public defender's 2017 sentencing memo, Banks graduated Evanston Township High School in 2012 after his parents moved from the "inner city of Chicago to Evanston so that [their] children could have a better life and be distanced from the dangerous neighborhood they lived in."

Banks' attorney, Christina Farley Jackson, said her client should continue to receive "treatment for his marijuana addiction." In a request for a 1-month prison sentence, Jackson told the judge Banks was planning to work toward obtaining a commercial driver's license and going to barber school.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood ahead of his sentencing hearing, Banks apologized to his public defender, the prosecution and the court.

"Being in custody has shown me to appreciate my chances and has also shown me where my addiction has led me… in jail, and that's no place to be," Banks said. "Going forth in my future, I will continue to be a hard working young man, only with more knowledge and more respect for the law. I will not involve myself with anything that could lead me in this position again."

Court records indicate prosecutors repeatedly sought to revoke the terms of his supervision, but their reasons for doing so and Wood's reasons for rejecting them were not publicly available.

As of July 1, Banks faces three federal counts of robbery, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and three counts of brandishing a firearm during a violent crime, which each carry a mandatory five-year sentence and a potential maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Pretrial motions in his latest case must be filed by Aug. 14, responses are due Aug. 28 and a status hearing was set for Sept. 12, according to court records.

Read complete 2019 criminal complaint and 2017 sentencing memorandums