2 Sentenced In Fake Robbery
JOLIET, Ill. (STMW) - A woman who staged a phony robbery with her then-boyfriend and another man at a doughnut shop last year was in court Friday.
At 8:39 p.m. Aug. 10, 2009, a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a White Sox cap over his long hair sat down at a table in the Dunkin Donuts restaurant inside the Walmart at 1401 S. Route 59 in Joliet.
"After a few minutes he came up to the counter where Shauna M. Smith was working and handed her a note," Joliet police Detective Chris Schott testified.
With the note threatening to "blow her [expletive] head off," Smith, 22, opened the register, put $300 into a doughnut bag and handed it to the man who thanked her and walked out.
Smith told another employee she'd just been robbed and he called 911.
Court records said 16 police officers rushed to the scene "putting their own safety at risk to make sure [Smith] was safe," Judge Carla Alessio-Policandriotes said.
Meanwhile, Schott was assigned the case and sent the robbery note to the state crime lab, which returned a fingerprint match a month later on Anthony Silva, 22.
"The next day I was at Walmart for groceries and I walked over to the counter and asked the employee if she knew … Anthony," Schott said. "I thought he might have worked there, but when she said 'That's Shauna's boyfriend,' I was surprised."
After being tracked down, Silva told Schott the note may have come from a pad of paper at a nearby house the couple regularly hung out at with other young people.
Schott went to question the homeowner's son, who excused himself during the interview and "called someone saying the police had a sketch of Wyatt."
Silva was arrested and admitted being involved, also implicating Smith and Wyatt Baxa, 21, as the "robber."
"They'd taken the money to buy heroin, get a hotel room for three days and attend the Air and Water Show," Schott said.
The defendants were tried separately on robbery and theft charges. After serving nearly 300 days in jail, Silva was sentenced June 29 to 30 months of probation and 50 hours of community service. Baxa's next court appearance is scheduled for January.
On Friday, Alessio-Policandriotes sentenced Smith to six months in jail, but incarceration will be stayed if she complies with a substance abuse-focused probation program and performs 85 to 100 hours of community service.
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