Chicago man convicted of robbery as a lookout at Streamwood Aldi
A defense attorney and prosecutors agree an armed robbery took place at a Streamwood Aldi store on an October night nearly three years ago. But they disagree about the role Joseph Bobbitt played in it.
After two hours of deliberations late Wednesday, jurors sided with the prosecution when they found the Chicago man guilty.
Prosecutors argued the Chicago man was involved "up to his eyeballs," serving as lookout for previously convicted co-defendants Freddie Clemons, the gunman, and Derrick Shelby, whom prosecutors described as the backup.
Defense attorneys insist Bobbitt, 49, had no clue what the other men were doing.
"Just because (prosecutors) call him a lookout doesn't mean he was the lookout," Cook County Assistant Public Defender Helen Tsimouris said during closing arguments.
Prosecutors acknowledged during their closing arguments that Bobbitt never brandished a weapon or pulled money from a cash register. They allowed he spent most of the 10- to 15-minute robbery outside the store.
But they say he's as guilty as Clemons, 45, and Shelby, 63, who were sentenced to prison terms of 45 years and nine years, respectively.
Store video surveillance showed Clemons wielding a handgun and gesturing to four Aldi employees to lie on the floor around 9 p.m. Oct. 23, 2012. Clemons and Shelby were also seen removing money from a cash register and leaving the store.
Streamwood police arrived minutes later. They had been alerted by a store manager, who called 911 before the robbery began to report and describe three suspicious men at the store entrance. While an officer took Shelby into custody, Clemons and Bobbitt bolted from the parking lot on the 900 block of East Irving Park Road and down a residential street, where they ran through a home, "terrorizing a family" in their efforts to flee police, said Assistant State's Attorney Karen Crothers.
Police found Bobbitt nearby about an hour later, hiding in some bushes.
The law of accountability makes Bobbitt responsible for the actions of his co-defendants, said Crothers, meaning "any time Clemons held his gun and pointed it ... it's as if (Bobbitt) himself was pointing the gun." Under the law, anyone reaping the benefits of a crime is responsible for it, she said.
Not necessarily, Tsimouris said.
"In order for him to be responsible, he had to do something to make (the robbery) happen," she said. "You have to do something knowingly to make the crime happen. ... They can't show that."
Bobbitt had no idea what the other men planned, argued Tsimouris, as evidenced by his not bothering to shield his face from the security camera, as the others did. Moreover, while the other men wore dark clothes, Bobbitt wore a bright red shirt that made him readily identifiable, which he wouldn't have done if he had known their intentions, she said.
Tsimouris asked jurors to image what would have happened if Bobbitt had stayed home that night. The events would have unfolded the same way, she suggested.
"It doesn't change anything if he's not there," she said.
But he was there and that's enough, said Crothers.
"There are two kinds of people in the world: those who earn and those who take," she said. The Aldi employees that night were earners, she said.
"Bobbitt and his buddies are those who take," Crothers said. "Their tools of the trade are fear, intimidation and a handgun ... and good, old-fashioned teamwork."
Bobbitt faces a maximum of 30 years in prison.