COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — An Englewood teen robbed a woman near the Belmont "L" station just six hours before he brutally attacked a 77-year-old woman inside her Lakeview home, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The first victim's stolen cellphone was discovered inside the second victim's stolen car, Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto said during a bond hearing Wednesday.
According to prosecutors, Lilearl Taylor, 19, attacked a 26-year-old woman as she walked along the 900 block of West Belmont Avenue about 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 8.
The victim was looking down at her phone, an iPhone 6S, when Taylor grabbed it and hit the woman so hard that she fell to the ground, police and prosecutors said. The victim needed to be treated for a concussion.
Less than six hours later, Taylor and two others — Eli Ruff, 18, and Tracie Towbridge, 19 — broke into a 77-year-old woman's nearby home in the 3600 block of North Magnolia Avenue about 5 a.m. on Jan. 9, prosecutors said.
The trio is accused of violently beating the elderly victim every time she made noise or called for help during a 45-minute home invasion that netted the burglars jewelry, coins, a TV and the victim's Honda Accord.
Among other injuries, the woman suffered broken bones and bleeding to her brain, prosecutors said. Police captured Taylor and his accomplices after they allegedly crashed the victim's Accord on the Dan Ryan Expressway.
Inside the car, police found several cellphones, according to Scaduto.
A police investigation allegedly revealed that one of those phones belonged to the 26-year-old victim who was attacked near the Belmont "L" station. That attack was also captured on CTA surveillance footage, prosecutors said, and Taylor was identified as the robber.
During a bond hearing earlier this month, prosecutors alleged that Taylor, Ruff and Towbridge rode the Red Line north looking for someone to rob on the evening of the attacks.
Each man was ordered held on $2 million bail for the Jan. 9 home invasion.
Prosecutors this week charged Taylor with robbery for the Jan. 8 attack on Belmont. Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. on Wednesday ordered him held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Earlier this month, Taylor's attorney said Taylor, of the 6700 block of South Perry Avenue, worked as a furniture mover, has two children and is a graduate of Harper High School.
One of Taylor's alleged accomplices, Ruff, appeared in court last week on additional charges of burglary and theft. Ruff is accused of breaking into two separate Lakeview homes in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 9 attack. He stole computers and snapped photographs of himself wearing a victim's clothing and smoking weed, authorities said.
No additional charges have been filed against Towbridge.
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