Mount Prospect men plead guilty to home invasion

Three Mount Prospect men who police say forced their way into a Prospect Heights home at gunpoint pleaded guilty to home invasion and were each sentenced to six years in prison.

Olvin Ceveda-Licona, 27, Esmy Ceveda-Licona, 28, and Alvaro Chavez-Hernandez, 25 — all of the 1100 block of Boxwood — could have faced as much as 30 years in prison for the class X felony. Each man will have to complete 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole. Olvin Ceveda-Licona received credit for the 246 days he has spent in custody since his arrest. Esmy Ceveda-Licona and Chavez-Hernandez were credited with 245 days in custody. Additionally, each man was ordered to pay $585 in fines.

Police said the attack in February was not random and that the defendants targeted a 21-year-old man living at the house. The man’s mother answered a knock at the door about 3 a.m. Feb. 19 and was greeted by the men with covered faces and dressed in dark clothes.

The men forced their way inside the home and one of them held a gun under the woman’s chin and demanded gold and money, prosecutors said during the defendants’ bond hearing in March. The other two man ran upstairs to the bedroom where the 21-year-old was sleeping, authorities said. One of the men kicked the victim in the head and held a knife on him, but the victim escaped by jumping from the second-floor window and running to a neighbor for help.

Police recovered a cellphone belonging to the girlfriend of one of the men. The victims identified one of the defendants from a photo saved to the phone, prosecutors said. Police contacted the girlfriend, who confirmed that she saw the defendants at her home several hours after the attack. The victims identified the defendants after viewing a police lineup.