Men get prison time for stealing copper from ComEd substation

A Streamwood man has been sentenced to seven years for stealing copper cables.

In addition, his co-defendant from Chicago's South Side has pleaded guilty to the same charge and sentence.

Ronald R. Moore, 30, of the 1100 block of Fulton Drive in Streamwood, was sentenced Wednesday in Kane County court to serve his time for stealing copper cable from a ComEd substation in Gilberts, according to a Kane County state's attorney news release.

Meanwhile, co-defendant Ronnie Sistrunk, 39, of Chicago, agreed to serve seven years in exchange for a guilty plea to theft of more than $10,000, a felony that carries between three and seven years in prison, the release said.

A Kane County jury in August convicted Moore, as well as a third man, Joseph J. Lewis, 33, of Chicago, on one count of theft of more than $10,000.

Lewis will appear in court Jan. 8 for sentencing and faces between six and 30 years in prison, due to his prior criminal record.

Lewis also faces another charge for theft of copper cable from another local ComEd substation.

He is now in the Kane County jail on $75,000 bail.

A fourth man, Javan K. Brown, 34, of Chicago, agreed to a sentence of 24 months probation and 162 days in jail in exchange for a guilty plea to theft of more than $10,000 - he was given credit for the 162 days he already served in the Kane County jail.

The sentences come months after Gilberts police arrested four out of six men in March and found $3,000 worth of copper cable in the suspects' station wagon.

An hour earlier, Elgin police had pulled over a van and arrested its driver for DUI.

The driver later admitted he was following the station wagon from Chicago to pick up the copper.

Police found three piles of small copper cable pieces at the substation that had been cut from spools behind a locked fence.

The copper was valued at roughly $21,000.