Two individuals arrested for an armed robbery earlier this year in Jacksonville reached plea deals this morning.
Eighteen-year-old Juanlangeno Jackson and 28-year-old Jeremy Jackson, of Jacksonville, appeared in Morgan County Court this morning and were both sentenced to the Illinois Department of Corrections for armed robbery.
The Jacksons were arrested in July along with a 17-year-old Jacksonville boy and 25-year-old Don Starks, also of Jacksonville, in connection to an incident where a victim agreed to purchase an iPhone on an Internet site, and then meet the seller at Water and Ebey Streets, according to police testimony.
The victim was allegedly robbed of his own phone and about $400 in cash. It was discovered that the phone was being re-sold online. A “controlled buy” was arranged through law enforcement.
According to testimony, Juanlangeno Jackson set up a fake online profile prior to the alleged robbery, and that it was Jeremy Jackson that met with the victim. Juanlangeno Jackson reportedly admitted to producing a knife during the incident.
Juanlangeno was sentenced to six years in the IDOC, while Jeremy Jackson was sentenced to six-and-a-half years. Both were given credit for the nearly four months they’ve served in jail and get day-for-day credit in prison. They were ordered to pay restitution to the victim in this case.
Bobby Bonjean is the Morgan County State’s Attorney.
“Juanlangeno Jackson’s involvement in this actual offense was probably a little more. I think the evidence would have shown that he was the one responsible for setting up the fake Facebook page that kind of lured in whoever they were trying to get, and that Jeremy Jackson came in on the end in terms of his involvement,” Bonjean says.
“When you look at their criminal histories, Juanlangeno had virtually none and is still 18, where Jeremy Jackson does have some prior felonies and had one prior stint in the Illinois Department of Corrections.”
Bonjean explains how an amended armed robbery count was filed this morning in Morgan County Court.
“With the original count 1, the allegation contained therein that one of them was possessing the firearm. There was a 15 year add-on if we would have been able to prove that. We never recovered a firearm, so we would have been simply relying on one of the victims, what they believed was a gun,” he says.
“We may have had some difficulty trying to prove that. We were willing obviously if they wanted to go to trial to roll the dice and bet that testimony, but we knew that in terms of a plea agreement that would have been difficult to prove.”
The 17-year-old admitted a petition for adjudication for delinquency of a minor last week and is set for sentencing at a future date. Starks is next due in court on December 2nd.