Men charged with stealing over $6K worth of items from Lombard liquor store

Three Chicago men are accused of stealing more than $6,100 worth of merchandise from a Lombard liquor store.

Travonta Turner, 27, Deandre Richardson, 26, and Jonnie Fort, 27, are all charged with one felony count of burglary and one felony count of retail theft.

DuPage County prosecutors argued to have the three held in jail while awaiting trial. At a hearing Thursday in first appearance court, formerly known as bond court, Judge Joshua Dieden denied the request. As a condition of their pretrial release, the defendants must refrain from going into any Lombard Liquors store.

Lombard police were called to a reported theft at the Lombard Liquors store off 22nd Street at about 10:33 p.m. Wednesday.

Prosecutors alleged three men, later identified as Turner, Richardson and Fort, went into the liquor store and immediately began putting bottles of liquor in bags that they had brought with them.

After the men had filled the bags with roughly $6,123.29 worth of merchandise, they left the store without paying for the items, authorities said.

The trio fled in a Ford Escape, but a short time later, Illinois State Police troopers spotted the SUV on I-290 going east, according to the DuPage state's attorney's office. A pursuit ended when the Ford crashed in Chicago near I-290 and Independence Boulevard. After the crash, the SUV's occupants fled all taken into custody after a brief foot pursuit.

All three men are next due in court for arraignment on Nov. 20.