Guilty verdict in 2012 armed robbery at Streamwood Aldi
Prosecutors argued that the strongest evidence against Freddie Clemons, one of three Chicago men charged with robbing a Streamwood Aldi at gunpoint, came from the four employee eyewitnesses to the 2012 holdup.
The guilty verdict, which followed about 2½ hours of deliberations Thursday, suggested jurors agreed. Six men and six women found Clemons, 45, guilty of armed robbery, a class X felony punishable by 21 to 45 years in prison.
The employees identified Clemons in a photo lineup as the man who held a gun on them, ordered a cashier to empty the register drawer and then told them to lie on the floor during the robbery, which took place shortly after 9 p.m. on Oct. 23, 2012, at the store located on the 900 block of E. Irving Park Road in Streamwood.
Clemons' attorneys claimed witnesses never described Clemons' facial features and never identified him in a physical lineup, despite multiple conversations prosecutors claim witnesses had with Clemons the night of the robbery.
“If they saw the subject for so long, why didn't they describe his face?” said Cook County Assistant Public Defender Robert Fox during closing arguments.
“We're not saying the witnesses were lying. We're saying they were mistaken,” said Fox, pointing out that police found no fingerprints suitable for comparison that matched Clemons at the store or on the revolver recovered several blocks from the store.
Prosecutors say Clemons and co-defendants Derrick Shelby, 52, and Joseph Bobbitt, 48, committed the robbery shortly before closing time. Video surveillance inside the store shows three men — dressed as witnesses described — enter the store, take the money and exit the store after forcing the employees to lie on the floor.
Police caught Shelby outside the store. He pleaded guilty to armed robbery in 2014 and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Police found Bobbitt, whose trial is pending, hiding in a bush a few blocks from the store. Detective Eric Pagels testified that he learned Clemons' identity after speaking with Shelby, obtained a photo from a police database and used it in the photo lineup he showed witnesses. Pagels testified he obtained an arrest warrant for Clemons, who was in the custody of another agency.
Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Susanne Groebner argued this case as “about what these victims saw and their identification” of a defendant who never hid his face.
Each witness recognized Clemons in the photo lineup, she said. Each one recognized the revolver he used. He might have run from the store but he was unable to run from his culpability, she told jurors, adding, “He can't run from that verdict of guilty from you.”
Clemons next appears in court on Feb. 11.