Chicago man gets 17 years for Lake Bluff cellphone store robbery

A Chicago man was sentenced to 17 years in prison Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to armed robbery of a Lake Bluff cellphone store.

Aries Rickenbacker, 25, of the 8000 block of South Vernon Avenue, was one of three people involved in the Sept. 18, 2017, theft of the store located on the 200 block of South Waukegan Road.

Rickenbacker and Cordell Prince, 22, also of Chicago, entered the store around 4:13 p.m. and ordered two employees into a back room. Rickenbacker, showing he was armed, and Price tied the victims up before stealing 23 cellphones worth $16,100 from the store.

The two then got into a vehicle driven by Eddie Hill, 26, of Chicago.

After the theft, store employees called authorities and enabled an anti-theft tracking device in one of the stolen phones. This GPS tracker helped lead police to the vehicle, initiating a small car chase before the three were taken into custody following a crash with another car in Highland Park.

Prince pleaded guilty to a felony criminal charge of armed robbery March 2, 2018, and faces 15 years in prison. Hill pleaded guilty to a felony criminal charge of armed robbery Nov. 29, 2018, and received a prison sentence of 9½ years.

Rickenbacker was awarded 683 days credit for time served in the Lake County jail, but is required by law to serve at least 50 percent of his prison sentence before being eligible for supervised release.