Chicago woman sentenced to 10 years for Villa Park home invasion
A Chicago woman, who posed as a prostitute in a 2013 Villa Park home invasion in which three people were tied up and robbed, is headed to prison.
DuPage County Judge John Kinsella on Thursday sentenced Toni Gipson, 33, of the 3100 block of South Throop, to 10 years in prison followed by three years of probation.
Gipson pleaded guilty to home invasion with a deadly weapon in the case.
She was given credit for the roughly 400 days she has been held on $500,000 bail.
Gipson, who was located and arrested in August 2014, is the fifth and final suspect to be sentenced in the Feb. 12, 2013, crime that unfolded after one of the victims arranged to meet a prostitute at his home.
Prosecutors said the victim who arranged the meeting was met by Gipson and four men when he answered his door on the 700 block of West Roy Drive.
The group held him at gunpoint, put a pillowcase over his head, bound him with strings from a set of blinds, and took his bank cards.
Prosecutors said Darwin Amador-Velasquez was armed with a loaded 9 mm handgun that he used to intimidate the victim.
Amador-Velasquez stayed at the victim's residence while Gipson and the others withdrew about $500 from the victim's accounts and attempted to use his cards at Wal-Mart and a nearby gas station.
When they returned, Amador-Velasquez and another co-defendant had tied up two other victims who showed up at the home in the meantime.
The men then took those victims' bank cards and made more withdrawals, prosecutors said.
None of the victims was seriously injured.
The four men were arrested after police used a gas station surveillance video to locate a white Nissan used in the home invasion. Authorities found the handgun on the vehicle's rear seat.
Amador-Velasquez was sentenced in February to 24 years in prison. Jaime Aguirre, 23, of Highland Park, was sentenced in October to 22 years. Frederico Garcia, 27, was sentenced to 12 years in May and Sabas Torres, 27, was sentenced to 10 years last November.