Charges reduced in Yorktown McDonald's holdup
Nearly six months after two men were charged with a brazen stickup of a McDonald's in Yorktown Center in which a female manager was bound with duct tape, the second defendant walked out of jail Wednesday a free man.
The former store manager, Bobby L. Dean, 32, of Chicago was released in a plea deal after admitting his guilt to a reduced charge of conspiracy to commit theft. His co-defendant, Jardell A. Woods, 21, of Bellwood, was acquitted of all charges July 31 based on insufficient evidence.
At gunpoint, a female manager of the McDonald's in the Lombard mall was forced to open a safe before she was bound with duct tape and held in a bathroom around 5 a.m. Dec. 1, 2008.
The 54-year-old manager was shaken but otherwise not physically harmed, and managed to free herself after her two masked assailants fled the restaurant. The men made off with $17,000. The money was never found.
From the onset, police suspected the armed robbery was an inside job. The manager reported her assailants seemed familiar with the restaurant's layout and operations. She could not recognize their faces, as both were masked, but the woman gave police the names of two other employees based on her assailants' voices.
Police questioned the men, neither of whom were Dean or Woods, but they were not charged. Authorities said Dean was the closing manager the night before the robbery. They said he failed to make some bank deposits, which allowed a large amount of the restaurant's daily proceeds to accumulate in the safe.
Dean maintained his innocence when police interrogated him one day after the crime. Surveillance footage from security cameras failed to reveal the assailants' identities. But in a Nov. 29, 2008, video, Dean and Woods are seen walking together to a nearby bank to make a deposit. Police said Dean told them he was unable to deposit the money that day.
Police also tracked down Woods, a former employee who was friends with Dean. Woods was seen inside the restaurant visiting Dean the night before the crime. Woods also denied robbing the store. Police said they uncovered suspicious phone activity between the two near the time of the crime.
Authorities arrested the men in March on charges of armed robbery with a firearm, aggravated unlawful restraint, burglary and theft. Both were held on $750,000 bonds. They faced up to 30 years in prison.
DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis acquitted Woods during a July 31 trial after Jaime Escuder, a senior assistant public defender, noted the lack of forensic or other evidence. Facing a similarly weak case against Dean, prosecutors agreed to Wednesday's plea deal in which he was sentenced to three months' conditional discharge and 180 days in jail. Dean was set free after receiving credit for the time he already had served in jail.