More Top Picks Best Garden Hose Reels
player ready...The final two of five men charged in connection with an alleged drug-related home invasion in unincorporated Waukegan near the Gurnee border pleaded not guilty Thursday in Lake County Circuit Court.
Eduardo Solis-Marcelo, 26, of Waukegan, and Juan Bahena-Arcos, 21, of Park City, joined three other defendants in pleading not guilty to charges of home invasion, armed robbery, unlawful use of a weapon by a street gang member and residential burglary, according to Assistant Lake County State’s Attorney Rod Drobinski.
Jose Villegas, 27, of Park City, Pablo Calix, 19, also of Park City, and Javier Montes, 31, of Waukegan, enter their pleas earlier this month.
Authorities said the most serious charges carry a mandatory minimum of 21 years in prison upon conviction, although the sentences may be served at 50 percent.
All five are being held in Lake County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail, with the exception of Calix, who is being held on $400,000 bail.
Drobinski said authorities believe all of the defendants are street gang members and that they entered an occupied home on the 12000 block of Harrison Avenue with a loaded gun Feb. 18 in what appears to be an attempted drug-related robbery.
No one was injured during the home invasion, according to Lake County Sheriff’s Sgt. Curtis Gregory.
The incident was reported at about 9:50 a.m. Feb.18, when 911 caller described a vehicle leaving the area. A sheriff’s deputy patrolling near Dilley’s and Stearns School roads spotted the vehicle and a chase ensued, police said.
The suspect’s vehicle pulled into a driveway on Conifer Lane and two of the defendants were apprehended there, while two others escaped on foot, according to police.
One of the men was captured while trying to make a telephone call to a friend inside the principal’s office at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, located about two blocks away from where the suspect vehicle stopped, according to the principal. A fourth defendant was caught near the church.
Bahena-Arcos, the last defendant to be arrested, was taken into custody two days later in Highwood.
Twitter @jimnewton5