MADISON – The first of two men convicted for robbing two Lake Delton stores in July 2020, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 8.5 years in prison, to be followed by three years supervised release and restitution of $2,554.
Cortez Thurmond, 22, of North Chicago, Illinois, conspired with Deon Brown, of Zion, Illinois, to rob at gunpoint the Alpha Red Studio and then Gifts of the World on July 28, 2020.
The men were recorded on video taking money from the stores and customers. During the robbery, Brown carried a firearm with an extended magazine and struck victim in the back of the head with it.
“The robbery, while short in duration, was extremely serious and left a lasting impact on the innocent victims of a senseless crime motivated by pure greed,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Wegner wrote the court about the Gifts of the World robbery.
A customer at the Gifts of the World wrote that she lived in fear for months after the robbery that Brown would come to her house and rob her again.
Thurmond and Brown then robbed gas stations in southeast Wisconsin and Lake County, Illinois, before Thurmond was arrested in Kenosha in September 2020.
Thurmond has prior convictions that have resulted in his imprisonment for much of his adult life. At 18, he was convicted for home invasion and sentenced to six years. In 2015, he was convicted of credit card fraud and sentenced to 21 months in prison. Two years later he was sentenced to seven years in prison for burglary but released on parole in December 2019.
Within eight months he committed the Lake Delton robberies, Wegner wrote the court.
Under the advisory sentencing guidelines, Thurmond faced 9.5 to 10 years in prison.
Wegner asked District Judge James Peterson to sentence Thurmond to nine years in prison.
Thurmond’s attorney, Toni Laitsch, asked for a seven-year sentence for her client saying he was brought up by a grandmother as his mother was a drug addict and a criminal and Thurmond never met his father.
Thurmond told Peterson that he was sorry for the harm he caused the stores and their customers; however, he didn’t know Brown was carrying a gun until he read it in court documents.
As to his lengthy criminal history, Thurmond said that he “had made some bad decisions that I regret and I ask for leniency.”
Peterson asked Thurmond why he should believe that he is no longer a danger to the community after victimizing so many while committing crimes.
Thurmond said he was homeless at the time of the Lake Delton robberies, was abusing drugs and had mental health issues. He needed money for his children and took it from others without thinking how it could impact them.
However, now he understands that his children need him more and to just provide for them financially, they need him in his life.
Peterson said he was initially ready to impose a 10.5-year sentence because of the violence involved in the two robberies. Instead, he decided to impose a lesser sentence that balanced the need for punishment for the offenses but also factor in his difficult upbringing and give him hope to live a better life for his children’s sake.
“There’s a saying that hurt people, hurt people,” the judge said. “Don’t hand this down to the next generation. Break the chain of deprivation and destruction,” Peterson said.
Brown is to be sentenced on April 20 before Peterson.
Thurmond and Brown were indicted in January in federal court in Milwaukee for allegedly robbing gas stations in Racine and Kenosha. They are scheduled for trial on April 27.
After learning of those charges, robbery charges in Lake County were dismissed by the district attorney, Wegner said.
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