CHICAGO – A man with an extensive record of juvenile arrests has been given a six-year prison sentence for participating in the 2022 armed robbery of a Boystown convenience store.
Deangelo Smith, 20, pleaded guilty this month to armed robbery in exchange for Judge Mary Brosnahan’s sentence, court records show.
Those six years were reduced to three for good behavior. He then received college credit for 887 days spent in jail, one day for a work program and 687 days for attending high school classes. Those 1,532 credits were enough to keep him from spending nights in jail.
The robbery occurred at 7-Eleven, 3407 North Halsted, in the heart of Boystown, around 2:30 a.m. on March 9, 2022.
Two cars pulled into the store’s parking lot and three men wearing ski masks walked inside. Two of them pointed their guns at the clerk and threatened to “shoot his head off,” prosecutors alleged.
Smith, wearing distinctive blue sneakers, went behind the counter, cleared the registers and took a bunch of Newport cigarettes, officials alleged. The robbers also cleaned out the clerk’s pockets before leaving in the two cars, including a stolen Nissan.
Illinois State Police troopers spotted the stolen Nissan a while later and chased the car until it crashed on the West Side. Smith was said to be carrying Newport cigarettes.
During an interview with Chicago police, Smith initially denied that state troopers had chased him and said he was selling drugs at the time, prosecutors said during his first court appearance.
Prosecutors also alleged that he had been arrested 25 times as a juvenile, and that he had been convicted of robbery and theft in 2018. At the time of the robbery, he had two cases pending in juvenile court, one for vehicle hijacking and aggravated theft and one for car hijacking and aggravated theft. the other for two separate hijackings, prosecutors said.
