Prolific robber gets 20 years for Glendale Heights holdup

For three months last year, Eliu Villicana-Mancilla led a “roving gang of armed robbers” through the suburbs, terrorizing Hispanic business owners scattered across six counties, prosecutors said.

On Thursday, the 27-year-old Chicago man received his lengthiest prison stay yet — 20 years — from a DuPage County judge who said he essentially preyed on other immigrants.

“He wasn’t here to support his family or do anything of a constructive nature,” Judge George Bakalis said. “He singled out Hispanics so he could rob people of his own background.”

Bakalis was sentencing Villicana-Mancilla for the Feb. 21, 2011, robbery of Teresa’s Discoteca at 2045 Bloomingdale Road in Glendale Heights. Assistant State’s Attorney Joe Lindt said the defendant and his crew fled with about $5,000 after the owner was hogtied and threatened with a gun to her head.

The robbery was nearly identical to others reported between February and May last year in Boone, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties. Authorities said the robbers targeted Hispanic businesses that offered cash wire services and were expected to have large amounts of money on hand.

In Round Lake, they robbed a formalwear store of about $10,000 after tying up a clerk and her two teenage daughters. They took about $11,500 from a Carpentersville DVD store in a similar fashion, according to testimony.

The spree ended after police officers from various agencies formed an undercover task force with U.S. Marshals. The group had Villicana-Mancilla and four accomplices under surveillance in May 2011 when they robbed a Vernon Hills grocery store.

Assistant Public Defender Ricky Holman said his client committed the robberies to support a drug habit.

“I’m ready to change my life now,” Villicana-Mancilla said in court, apologizing to the victims and his family. “I know I made a lot of mistakes, and my family needed me.”

Prosecutors said the defendant previously served time in federal prison on a bank fraud charge after illegally entering the U.S. After his parole and deportation to Mexico, he returned and almost immediately assembled a band of robbers.

“They left nothing in their wake but fear and terror,” Lindt said.

Villicana-Mancilla will serve the 20-year term concurrent with two three 14-year sentences and one 12-year term for robberies in Kane, Lake and McHenry counties. His attorney said he has agreed to plead guilty to another robbery in Boone County in exchange for 12 years. He also has a robbery case pending in Will County.