Man who robbed Elgin 7-Eleven sentenced to 25 years

Prosecutors sought significant jail time for Samuel Span, convicted in June on nine counts of attempted armed robbery and aggravated battery for a 2006 convenience store robbery that left clerk Valmik Gandhi with a fractured skull. On Tuesday, Associate Judge John J. Scotillo granted it when he sentenced 25-year-old Span to 25 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Span, who's recovering from an infection resulting from stab wounds he received recently while incarcerated at Cook County Jail, slumped and appeared to lose consciousness upon hearing Scotillo's sentence, which was punctuated by an outcry from Span's mother, Lisa Mcguinn.

Sheriff's deputies caught the former Elgin resident and guided him to chair where he sat, head bowed, while Scotillo finished.

That was the emotional conclusion to the proceedings during which Cook County assistant state's attorney Cathy Nauheimer requested substantial jail time based on Span's "violent background," which includes convictions of aggravated robbery and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in 2002 (for which Span received a four-year sentence) and aggravated discharge of a firearm, for which he received 4 years in 2004. He was on parole for that crime when he attempted to rob the Elgin 7-Eleven.

"It's only by God's grace that the victim wasn't killed," Nauheimer said.

In requesting a reduced sentence, defense attorney Glenn Jazwiec cited Span's troubled youth, which was marked by his mother's imprisonment and his own incarceration in a juvenile facility. Jazwiec also described the "steps he (Span) has taken to better himself," which include the completion of his high school degree and an associate degree in sociology while in jail.

Speaking on his own behalf, Span maintains his 2002 conviction resulted from him taking a fall for someone else. He also said spending the last two years in jail has calmed him down.

"I'm not saying I shouldn't be punished for my actions," he said, in his request for leniency. "Cook County has been the worst experience of my life."

Span said that he was a victim in the recent altercation at Cook County Jail in which he was stabbed by "someone trying to get a reputation."

"I thought I was invincible; in two years I've seen I'm not."

Citing a clause in the statue that allows the court to consider an extended incarceration if the individual has been convicted of a similar crime within the previous 10 years, Scotillo imposed a sentence just five years shy of the maximum.

A tearful Mcguinn thought it was too harsh.

"I think the sentence was way too much considering the victim did not pick him out of a lineup," she said after the court proceedings concluded.

Jazwiec said he will file a post-trial motion to reconsider the sentence. A hearing on that motion will take place next month.