Prosecutors: Home invaders threatened to kill 81-year-old Woodridge woman

A DuPage County judge on Saturday denied bail for two of three defendants charged with breaking into homes in Downers Grove and Woodridge and threatening to kill an 81-year-old homeowner in what authorities described as a "short-lived crime spree."

Tyler Sample, 21, of Peoria; Darion Yates, 21, of Bolingbrook; and Rose Marie Medrano, 26, of Darien, were charged with home invasion, aggravated robbery, robbery and residential burglary. If convicted of the most serious charge, they could face up to 60 years in prison.

Sample and Yates are being held without bail in the DuPage County jail. Medrano's bail was set at $500,000, prosecutors said.

Police received a report of a home invasion and robbery about 9:40 p.m. Thursday from a Woodridge woman who said she was upstairs in bed when she heard a loud noise downstairs.

Investigating the noise, the woman encountered Samples and Yates, who prosecutors say threatened to return to the home and kill the woman if she didn't follow their instructions. The men took a gold watch, wallet and laptop and fled the scene, prosecutors said.

Less than an hour earlier, Downers Grove police responded to a call from an apartment whose three residents told them a woman identified as Medrano knocked on the door asking to use the telephone, prosecutors said.

After the residents allowed her in, two men later identified as Sample and Yates forced their way in claiming to have a gun. Authorities say Sample punched one of the residents in the face. The trio left with cellphones, debit and credit cards, prosecutors said.

"The terror allegedly caused by these defendants forcing their way into their victims' homes, threatening them and physically assaulting one of them is almost unimaginable," said DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin in a prepared statement, which praised the work of the Downers Grove and Woodridge police departments.

The defendants next appear in court on Jan. 6.