Victim Might Lose Eye After Being Robbed By Cousin
CROWN POINT, Ind. (STMW) -- Robert Demon Squzert, 36, was charged Tuesday in Lake Superior Court with a slew of charges in connection with a Nov. 4 incident in which the victim is likely to lose her left eye.
Squzert, 834 Vermont St., Gary, is charged with attempted robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, aggravated battery, robbery resulting in bodily injury, criminal confinement, battery and interfering with reporting a crime.
Squzert is accused of assaulting his cousin, Melissa Ann LaRue, outside her home about 5 p.m. in the 4400 block of East 6th Avenue in Gary.
A probable cause affidavit filed in the case outlines these sequence of events:
LaRue was outside her home, talking with her father, who gave her some money, then left. As she was walking to the front door, Squzert grabbed her hair and started punching her in the face, then demanded the money her father had given her. The woman's two children, ages 13 and 9, were inside and tried to call 911, but Squzert grabbed the phone, threw it across the street and ran.
The woman went to a neighbor's home and asked them to call police.
LaRue was taken to Methodist Hospitals Northlake campus in Gary and transferred to University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago, where she underwent emergency surgery to both eyes. She will probably have her left eye removed. She has partial vision in her right eye.
LaRue's father had given her $7, which Squzert did not take from her.
The most serious of the charges is punishable by 20 to 50 years.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
