Hoffman Estates teen charged with armed robbery

A Hoffman Estates teen was ordered held on $125,000 bail Friday on charges she and a juvenile co-defendant participated in robbing two men at gunpoint.

Gabriella Kennedy, 18, was charged with armed robbery, a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Kennedy and the younger defendant met the men at a party about a month ago. They met up with the men again on Aug. 4 in Streamwood to smoke marijuana and drive around, said Cook County assistant state's attorney Caitlin Casey.

Shortly after the girls directed the men to drive to the 200 block of Kensington Drive to get more marijuana, two men wearing masks approached the car. They displayed a gun and demanded property from the men in the car, prosecutors said. The masked men took a backpack containing marijuana and a cellphone from the men in the car, Casey said. One of the masked men struck one of the car's male occupants and fired the gun into the air.

The masked men also took a purse from one of the girls and a cellphone from the other, Casey said.

Streamwood detectives discovered messages on the cellphone in which Kennedy and the juvenile discussed robbing the men, Casey said.

In setting bail, Judge Joseph Cataldo cited the violent nature of the crime, the use of a firearm and the physical violence inflicted on one of the men. He ordered Kennedy have not contact with the men.

The two male suspects are not in custody. The investigation is ongoing, Casey said.

Kennedy next appears in court on Sept. 8.