Naperville Credit Union Robber Sentenced To 17 Years In Prison
CHICAGO (STMW) -- A masked gunman who terrorized employees of a west suburban Naperville credit union before robbing them of nearly $135,000 in 2011 has been sentenced to 17 years in prison in that crime.
Ex-convict Wayne B. Hill, who apparently gambled away most of the robbery's proceeds, was also ordered to make approximately $134,300 in restitution to the Iliana Financial Credit Union in Naperville.
A U.S. District Court jury on July 11 found Hill guilty of a total of five counts of bank robbery, possession of stolen money and money laundering. Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman on Monday imposed Hill's prison term.
Prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago had argued for a sentence of 27 years and three months in prison, a spokesman for that agency said. He declined to comment further on the sentencing.
Hill, 47, last lived in far north suburban Waukegan. He was carrying a gun on Nov. 19, 2011, as he entered the credit union, at 1163 E. Ogden Ave.
An FBI affidavit indicated Hill donned a grotesque white mask before going inside and pointing the gun at a teller's head. A customer also told authorities she saw Hill enter the building "while waving a gun and yelling something to the effect of, 'Give me the money,'" the affidavit read.
Tellers removed cash from their drawers and put it inside a dark-colored bag Hill had thrust at them. One teller was then ordered into the vault to get more money out of a drawer there, according to the affidavit.
Hill took the money and fled from the area on foot. He was arrested a week later at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind.
An Indiana Gaming Commission enforcement agent testified that on Nov. 26, 2011, he saw Hill inserting "red dye-stained" money into one of the casino's gambling machines. Exploding packets of dye are often hidden inside bundles of cash given to bank robbers.
The agent seized more than $66,000 from a bag Hill was carrying and from the machines he had been playing.
Investigators later determined Hill had spent some of the money several days earlier at the Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee. Hill told the gaming agent he had found the cash on the side of a road.
Hill in 2004 was a suspect in a string of robberies at far west-suburban hotels, two of them in Naperville. He has served time in prison for at least two bank robberies in Chicago's north and northwest suburbs
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
