14 years for Crystal Lake robbery, beating
A 24-year-old man was sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday for his role in robbing a Crystal Lake convenience store in 2007 and beating the clerk with a pipe.
McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather also sentenced Daniel T. Charneski, formerly of Cary and now of Freeport, to four years for aggravated battery, but that sentence will be served at the same time as the longer one.
Over the summer, a jury convicted him of the Jan. 9, 2007, attack at a White Hen in which he and another man robbed the store of $735 and cigarettes before beating the female clerk with a pipe.
The clerk needed 26 staples for three cuts on her head.
Phil Hiscock, the lead prosecutor on the case, asked Prather for a 17-year sentence. “The brutal nature of the offense and the defendant’s prior record were the main two reasons,” Hiscock said.
The other defendant in the case, Stephen L. Waters, 27, formerly of Carpentersville, pleaded guilty to armed robbery in October 2008.
He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the 2007 attack and another in October 2006, according to court records.
Charneski will get credit for about 1½ years in jail while awaiting trial. Under law, his sentence can be halved for good behavior while in prison.