Suspects in Barrington Hills home invasion held on bond
Bond was set at $400,000 Thursday for each of three Rockford-area men charged with home invasion, aggravated kidnapping and armed robbery, in a case where police say they held a Barrington Hills couple and their four children at gunpoint for more than an hour.
Armed with handguns, the suspects, Frederick Neal, Leville Starks and Anthony Starks, entered the home early Aug. 16, Assistant State's Attorney Mike Gerber said during a bond hearing at the Rolling Meadows courthouse. Authorities believe they roused the sleeping family members, bound them with duct tape and demanded money, jewelry, pin numbers and credit cards.
The defendants entered the home through a basement window between 1 and 1:15 a.m., said Barrington Hills Police Sgt. Ron Riedel said. Cash, jewelry, electronic equipment and a television were stolen from the home. Police responded after a panic alarm sounded at 2:24 a.m.
The home invasion shocked residents of the usually quiet community of Barrington Hills. Village President Robert Abboud greeted Cook County Judge Thomas Fecarotta's imposition of high bonds as good news.
"I plan on making the Barrington Hills charges stick in a way they disappear from society for a very long time," said Abboud, acknowledging that two of the three have extensive criminal records which prosecutors detailed in court.
And Abboud said he's not worried about future incidents. "Barrington Hills residents know how to take care of themselves," he said. "The fact is as the economy gets more and more difficult, the average crime rate goes up."
Leville Starks, 32, and Neal, 34, also are suspects in a similar home invasion that occurred Aug. 22 in Elgin. Elgin police arrested the pair in connection with that crime in early September. Elgin police listed the two as living in Poplar Grove, near Rockford. Prosecutors on Thursday said they lived in Rockford.
A confidential informant's tip to Elgin police helped Barrington Hills officer in their investigation.
According to Gerber, Neal is a registered sex offender. He was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in 2006 and sentenced to four years in prison. He also spent nine days in the Illinois Department of Correction that year for obstruction of justice. In 2004, he received 24 months felony probation for resisting a police officer. That same year, he received 24 months probation for domestic battery.
In late August, Elgin police arrested Neal in connection with the Elgin home invasion and armed robbery. He has been in the custody of Kane County Sheriff's Department since Aug. 29.
In 1999, Leville Starks was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison for the manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance, Gerber said. Starks also has been charged in the Elgin home invasion. He has been in the custody of the Kane County Sheriff since Aug. 30.
Stark's brother Anthony, 36, of Rockford, has a residential burglary charge pending in Winnebago County. He has been in the custody of the Winnebago Sheriff's Department since Aug. 23 on charges of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and residential burglary. A sheriff's department spokesman said he's also being held on several 2008 warrants.
According to Gerber, in 2004, Anthony Starks was sentenced in six years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for burglary. In 2003, he received two years in prison for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Starks served 180 days in the Kane County jail in 2002 for violating an order of protection. He was convicted of burglary in 1998 and sentenced to five years in prison. Also that year, he received a six-year prison sentence for the delivery of a controlled substance and criminal drug conspiracy.
Abboud said he always had confidence that the suspects would be found.
"As I said before, we would hunt them down and bring them to justice, and that's what we're doing," he said.
The defendants next appear in court Nov. 12.