18 years for pair called 'Bonnie and Clyde but with two Clydes'

For a crime spree that earned them a comparison to Depression Era outlaws, a pair of 22-year-old suburban men will spend nearly two decades in prison.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Fecarotta sentenced Antonio Espino and Brian Norbut to 18 years in prison in exchange for their guilty pleas to home invasion, aggravated kidnapping and vehicular hijacking committed during February and March. They must serve 85 percent of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

"Your crime spree is like a 1930s crime spree, like Bonnie and Clyde but with two Clydes," said Fecarotta Tuesday before a courtroom crowded with family and friends of Espino and Norbut and their victims.

Fecarotta urged the men to consider those victims, whose lives have been forever changed by these events. He also asked them to consider their families who must live "with the stigma of what you did."

Espino and Norbut wore masks, goggles and carried pellet guns that resembled .45 caliber semiautomatic handguns when they forced their way into the garage of a couple returning to their Prospect Heights home in the early morning hours of Feb. 5, said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Gerber during the sentencing hearing. Placing the look-alike guns to the victims' heads, the defendants demanded money and credit cards, but fled when the couple's son arrived, Gerber said.

About 90 minutes later, the masked Espino and Norbut approached a Schaumburg woman as she exited her car and brandished their guns, Gerber said. They forced her to drive to a Hoffman Estates bank and withdraw money from her account, Gerber said. Finding it did not contain the amount they wanted, the duo threw the victim from her car, Gerber said.

The spree didn't stop there. At about 10 p.m. March 5, Espino and Norbut entered a Rolling Meadows Subway wearing the same disguises and brandishing the look-alike guns, Gerber said. They demanded money and bound employees' hands, then placed them into a freezer, Gerber said. The duo committed a similar crime about 9:45 p.m. March 11 at another Subway in Schaumburg.

Norbut, of the 800 block of Dorman Lane in Streamwood, implicated himself and Espino in the crimes on March 24 in a statement made to Carpentersville police who had arrested him on a drug-related charge, authorities said. Police obtained a warrant to search Espino's apartment in the 1500 block of Crimson Lane in Palatine, where they found masks, goggles, twist-ties and pellet guns resembling .45 caliber handguns.

Both men apologized to the victims as well as their own families.

"I'm sorry for the terrible crimes that have taken place. Anything I can do to take away the fear and pain and suffering I have caused I would," said Norbut, who has no criminal history and expressed remorse at embarrassing and hurting his family and friends.

Espino echoed Norbut's thoughts.

"I wasn't raised to be this way," said Espino, who was on parole for a 2008 burglary conviction.

Each received credit for 154 days in custody. Additionally, the men face home invasion, armed robbery and kidnapping charges in Kane County for a Feb. 1 incident in Carpentersville.