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Prison sentence stands in Oak Brook armed robbery

A Detroit man serving an eight-year prison sentence for the armed robbery of an Oakbrook Center jewelry store may have come to grips with the seriousness of his crime, but it won't help shorten his sentence.

DuPage Judge Blanche Hill Fawell refused Wednesday to reconsider the sentence she first handed down in December to 25-year-old Levert Jones.

Jones was shot by a security guard in June 2013 after using a 4-pound sledgehammer to smash a glass display case at the mall's C.D. Peacock store. Assistant State's Attorney Jim Scaliatine said authorities continue to search for two accomplices who fled.

“What most impressed me during the sentencing was the testimony of witnesses who felt robbed of their sense of security,” Fawell said. “(Jones) had an opportunity to cooperate, but he refused to give authorities any information (on the two accomplices).”

Six employees and 10 customers were inside the store when the men entered about 3:40 p.m. Jones pulled the sledgehammer from his waistband and broke the display case. The security guard ordered Jones to lie on the floor but Jones resisted and was shot in the rear abdomen during a struggle.

Jones' attorney, Ken Overwater, told Fawell that Jones would cooperate with police but Jones still maintains, as he did during sentencing, that he does not know the two men he traveled from Detroit to Oak Brook with to commit the crime.

Overwater said the two other men were trolling Jones' Detroit neighborhood when they found the “perfect guy” to commit the robbery.

“My client is uneducated and unsophisticated. He has no ability to plan or carry out this thing,” he said. “These other guys found someone, in my client, who they could get to commit the crime and if things went poorly they could run away without getting in trouble and it worked for them.”

Overwater, who was not at the sentencing, also apologized for Jones' behavior during sentencing, which Fawell at the time called “selfish.”

“I don't see any way my client could have given a worse representation of himself. It was an extraordinarily poor representation,” he said. “He has time to come to grips with the seriousness of his crime and the effect his actions had on people other than himself.”

Scaliatine reminded Fawell he originally sought a 15-year sentence for the crime.

“He was caught in the act and he was shot,” Scaliatine said. “He was the guy with the sledgehammer and he was the guy who used the sledgehammer.”

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