Two Uptown men are getting a fresh start after their attorneys used the city’s own video footage to show they were not responsible for robbing a man in Uptown last summer.
Omareon Coleman and Samuel Gaines, both 19 years old at the time, had never been arrested before Chicago police stopped them for interrogation, and the drunken victim identified them as the thieves.
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Incredibly, according to their counsel, two 16-year-old boys who were also charged with the heist were the actual robbers, but their charges were dropped within two weeks of the crime.
Around 9 p.m. on July 17, the 60-year-old victim hailed down a squad car from the Chicago police, reporting that he had just been jumped, beaten, and robbed of $25 in an alley behind the 4400 block of North Malden, according to a CPD report.
Prosecutors said the group kicked and pummeled the man in the head and body before stealing his money. According to CPD, the kids robbed the man at gunpoint. Due to his complaints of head and back pain, EMS sent him to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center for an assessment.
The cops discovered numerous individuals in the alley and arrested Gaines, Coleman, and the juveniles when the victim identified them as the attackers.
According to defense attorneys at Winston & Strawn, the legal firm that took on the case under its Racial Justice & Equity CEASE Initiative, shortly before accusing Coleman and Gaines, the intoxicated victim falsely accused someone else but swiftly recanted.
Two days following their arrest, the Chicago Police Department issued a news release announcing charges against Gaines, Coleman, and the children.
However, defense investigators obtained surveillance footage from cameras operated by the Chicago Police Department and the Chicago Housing Authority, as well as private surveillance video, which “clearly showed” that the victim was attacked by drug dealers during a narcotics transaction, not by Coleman and Gaines, according to the statement.
The defense team also discovered that one of the guys they represented was making Instacart deliveries on a scooter when police pulled him over for questioning. Instacart location data proved that he was at home during the robbery.
“Despite having an alibi for where he was when the crime occurred, our client was arrested and charged,” the law firm stated in a written statement.
Prosecutors dismissed charges against Coleman and Gaines after considering the evidence submitted by their counsel.
