An Illinois man was sentenced to three years Friday after a plea deal for a Hobart gas station robbery.
Marlon Triplett, 34, formerly of Chicago, admitted to Level 5 felony robbery. He faced one to six years.
Court records show his current address is listed at the Shawnee Correctional Center in Vienna, Illinois.
He and co-defendant Sedgwick Reavers were implicated in a string of stickups across the Chicagoland area.
Triplett’s lawyer Kirk Marrie said the “crime spree” was “egregious” to “terrorize” gas station clerks.
His client was “going through a dark time” that included alcohol and drug abuse. Marrie asked for “leniency.”
Deputy Prosecutor Keith Anderson asked for four years in prison.
Triplett said he had just lost a seasonal job, drank, used drugs and made “bad decisions.”
He is currently serving an 8½-year prison term for robbery.
It “saved my life,” he said. “I want to get back to my kids. I just want a chance to start over.”
With the robberies, he said he didn’t want anyone to be put in fear.
“But that’s what you did,” Judge Salvador Vasquez told him.
Police were called at 2:20 a.m. on Jan. 13, 2022, to a Speedway, 3200 E. Lincoln Highway, where a witness said two men with masks ordered the employee to lie on the ground.
They took more than $2,000 in lottery tickets and more than $2,000 in Newport cigarettes, charges state.
Police later learned a man in a distinctive blue Nike puffy coat with one orange sleeve tried to cash in stolen lottery tickets at 8:15 a.m. on Jan. 13 at Walmart, 1100 5th Ave., in Hammond.
The charging affidavit stated the stickup was one of a string of suspected gas station robberies in Indiana and Illinois — including Palos Heights, Hickory Hills, and Highland Park, all in Illinois, and Gary, Crown Point and Demotte — from December 2021 to January 2022 with Reavers.
Court records show that Reavers is imprisoned at the Menard Correctional Center in Illinois until January 2027.
mcolias@post-trib.com
