“I’m guilty as hell.”
Eugene Tasior Jr., 57, made that emphatic admission to his arresting officers on a September afternoon in 2016, the Kane County state’s attorney says. He had robbed a business of $1,300 in cash with a 12-inch ridged butcher knife, prosecutors alleged in court.
Tasior was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections by Kane County Circuit Judge James C. Hallock in exchange for pleading guilty to armed robbery.
Assistant State’s Attorney Bradley Melzer said Tasior, on the day of the robbery, covered his face and donned a hoodie and sunglasses before entering a business in the 1-99 block of Clock Tower Plaza in Elgin. He slammed the foot-long butcher knife down on the counter, Melzer said.
“Give me your money,” he demanded, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
The knife-wielding Tansior demanded a second cash drawer be emptied after he said the first was not enough, prosecutors said.
He took off from the business—but the employees recognized his voice and pegged him as a regular customer. Police arrived at his home a short while later and found the knife in his pocket along with the store’s cash, the state’s attorney said.
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That’s when, authorities say, he admitted his guilt.
Tasior was on parole at the time of the robbery. He had been sentenced to 18 years for a robbery in Cook County in 2006, the state’s attorney’s office said. He also spent time behind bars for drugs and burglary, authorities said.
Tasior, of the 800 block of Bode Road, Elgin, received 407 days served in Kane County jail where he was held in lieu of $250,000 bail since his arrest.
