Fourth man sentenced for copper cable theft
A Chicago man on Thursday was the last in a quartet to be sentenced for stealing ComEd copper cable back in March.
Joseph J. Lewis, 33, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing cable from a ComEd substation in Gilberts.
Lewis and Ronald R. Moore, 30, of Streamwood, were each convicted on Aug. 22 of one court of felonious theft.
According to a Kane County state's attorney news release, Gilberts police witnessed a station wagon exiting a ComEd substation on Mason Road in Gilberts at 1:45 a.m. on March 17. When police attempted to stop the car, six male passengers fled the vehicle. Police were able to later apprehend four of the six men and found about $3,000 worth of copper cable in the station wagon.
At the substation, police found three piles of smaller pieces of copper cable that had been cut from spools within a locked fence. The value of that copper was about $21,000, according to the Kane County's state's attorney's office.
On Aug. 25, a third defendant, Javan K. Brown, 34, of Chicago, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years' probation and 162 days in jail.
On Oct. 30, Ronnie Sistrunk, 39, of Chicago, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Lewis is also charged with stealing copper cable from an Elgin ComEd station in August 2007. His next court appearance on that charge is Jan. 28.