3rd Guilty Plea In Armed Robbery Of Lake Bluff Cell Phone Store

WAUKEGAN, IL — The third of three Chicago men arrested in connection with an armed robbery at a Lake Bluff cell phone store nearly two years ago pleaded guilty Tuesday in exchange for a sentence of 17 years in state prison, the Lake County State's Attorney's Office announced.

Aries Rickenbacker, 25, of the 8000 block of South Vernon Avenue, dismissed the public defender who had been assigned to represent him and chose to act as his own attorney, prosecutors said. He negotiated a guilty plea that will see him serve the longest sentence of the three robbers convicted of taking part in the Sept. 8, 2017, armed robbery of the Verizon store at 235 S. Waukegan Road.

Prosecutors said Rickenbacker was carrying a gun and accompanied by Cordell Prince when he entered the cell phone shop on a Friday afternoon. The two men ordered the clerks into the back of the store, made them to open a safe and tied their hands with zip ties, according to former Lake Bluff Deputy Chief Mike Hosking.

Rickenbacker and Prince grabbed 23 cell phones from the store valued at more than $16,000 before fleeing in a car driven by Eddie Hill, prosecutors said. Hosking said the car had been reported stolen from Chicago earlier that week.

The employees called police as the robbers fled, and an anti-thief GPS tracking device in one of the stolen phones began to transmit their location to authorities, according to prosecutors.

Two of the three robbers were caught when they unwittingly ran into the Highland Park Police Department after fleeing police south on Route 41 for about eight miles in a stolen car, police said at the time. The third man jumped over a wall but was quickly confronted by a police officer and arrested in the station's parking lot.

"This was a win-win situation for everyone involved," said Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim, announcing the the guilty plea. "An armed offender was sent to prison for a crime he admitted he committed, but the sentence also allows him an opportunity to rehabilitate in order to become a better citizen. We hope he takes that time and uses it wisely."

Each man initially faced more than two dozen felony counts, including charges of armed violence, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, aggravated unlawful restraint, burglary and being felons in possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number. All other charges were dropped in exchange for the guilty pleas — including one of resisting an officer that Rickenbacker picked up while in custody for refusing to return to his cell until he was pepper sprayed last September, according to the sheriff's office.

At the time of the robbery Rickenbacker was on parole following a conviction for driving a stolen car. Hill, the getaway driver, has been simultaneously also serving a sentence for a conviction of attempted residential burglary, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. Rickenbacker's 17-year sentence will be followed by at least three years of probation, according to prosecutors.

Prince, 22, of the first block of East 100th Place, was represented by Mundelein attorney Rhonda Burro, according to court records.

Prince pleaded guilty to armed robbery without a firearm on March 22, 2018, in exchange for a 15-year sentence. He will be not be eligible for parole until 2025.

Hill, 26, of the 9300 block of South King Drive, was represented by a public defender, according to court records.

Hill pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of aggravated robbery in exchange for a sentence of nine and a half years. He will be eligible for parole starting in 2022, according to IDOC.

The Deerfield, Highland Park, Lake Bluff and Lake Forest police departments all contributed to the arrests, according to Tim Wilinski, then deputy chief of police in Highland Park.

In a similar cell phone store armed robbery incident at a Glenview T-Mobile store, police withheld records of how they tracked stolen phones. Officials argued that their cell-phone tracking technique was "unique" and disclosing that they track stolen cell phone after armed robberies of cell phone stores would "disclose techniques other than those generally used or known."

Earlier: 3 Charged In Lake Bluff Armed Robbery, Chase Ending In Police Station