Woman admits to pair of McHenry Co. bank robberies
A former Lake in the Hills woman implicated in the death of her newborn son faces up to 50 years in prison since pleading guilty this morning to charges she robbed two banks last year.
Lyndsey R. Tucker, 27, admitted in U.S. District Court in Rockford that she stole more than $9,200 during holdups, separated by three days in February 2007, at the LaSalle Bank and Bank of America in Lake in the Hills.
Tucker will remain in federal custody until her Oct. 23 sentencing, when she will face up to 25 years in prison on each bank robbery charge. Probation is not a possibility, authorities said.
Tucker also is awaiting trial in McHenry County on an involuntary manslaughter charge stemming from the July 2007 death of her newborn son, posthumously named William Troia after his father.
Authorities allege Tucker secretly gave birth to the boy in a bathroom of a Hebron-area apartment she shared with his father. After the boy's birth, police said, Tucker wrapped the baby in a plastic bag and stuffed him under a bathroom sink, where the boy's father later found him dead.
The boy, authorities said, suffocated to death because a birth sac had been left over his face. About one in 1,000 babies are born with a similar obstruction, but the membrane can be removed easily to clear the newborn's breathing passage, according to testimony from a coroner's inquest in November.
Had the membrane been removed, authorities said, the boy would have survived. But Tucker, the charges allege, did not attempt to remove the sac from the boy's face.
At the time of the boy's birth, Tucker was free on bond awaiting trial on the bank robbery charges. Federal authorities revoked her bond after the death and she's been held without custody since.
The first bank robbery, police said, occurred Feb. 7, 2007 when Tucker walked into the LaSalle Bank, 240 N. Randall Road, displayed a large kitchen knife to a bank teller and escaped with $7,637.
Three days later, federal authorities said, Tucker walked into the Bank of America, 2540 Algonquin Road, displayed a realistic looking plastic gun and escaped with $1,679.
Lake in the Hills police responding to the robbery arrested Tucker a short time later as she drove away from the bank.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Pedersen said it is unlikely the charges involving the death of Tucker's newborn will be held against her during sentencing on the bank robbery charges.
"The only way it would be taken into account is if she pleads guilty or is convicted before the sentencing," Pedersen said.