Rolling Meadows man sent to prison for convenience store robbery
A Rolling Meadows man admitted Friday he used a BB gun to rob an Arlington Heights convenience store in March.
In exchange for his guilty plea to aggravated robbery, Giovani Tapia, 24, was sentenced to four years in prison with a recommendation that he be assigned to boot camp.
Cook County judge Thomas Fecarotta also ordered Tapia to pay $694 in fines, court records show.
Prosecutors say Tapia entered the 7-Eleven store in the 1700 block of Algonquin Road about 11:30 p.m. March 18. They said he pointed what police later determined was a BB gun at the cashier and ordered him to empty the cash register.
Tapia left the store with between $90 and $100, which he told police he took to help his family, prosecutors said during his bond hearing.
Police identified Tapia from store surveillance, prosecutors said.
The boot camp program is a 180-day detention program emphasizing vocational training and counseling. It is followed up by court supervision.