Aurora police have secured several felonies through the Kane County State’s Attorney on a man and woman from Sheridan, IL, in connection with the January armed robbery of a 46-year-old Aurora woman at a West Side strip mall parking lot.

Edwin Alequin, 37, and Nicole Barkes, 29, both of the 200 block of Grant Street, Sheridan, are each charged with armed robbery, a Class X felony and unlawful use of a credit card, a Class 4 felony. Alequin is also charged with a Class-1 armed robbery count.

“This case demonstrated amazing teamwork between different divisions of the police department and an unwavering commitment to putting all the pieces of a complicated case together,” Aurora Chief of Police Kristen Ziman said. “By taking these two individuals off the streets, it very well could have prevented similar crimes from occurring.”

At around 4:35 p.m. Jan. 27, Aurora police responded to the armed robbery that occurred in the West Aurora Plaza parking lot in the 1900 block of West Galena Boulevard.

The victim told police that she was approached by a man who asked for money and when she refused, he produced a gun that later turned out to be a pellet gun. She said when she began to run in fear, she heard four “pops”, which were later determined to be the suspect breaking out a window to the victim’s car with the butt end of the pellet gun. He ended up grabbing the woman’s purse off the front seat, and getting into an SUV that was later learned to be driven by Barkes.

The SUV was last seen eastbound on Galena. The victim was not injured.

Detectives were quick to learn that the victim’s credit card that had been in the stolen purse, was used at a gas station in Berwyn and a department store in Forrest Park within two hours of the robbery. After securing video of those transactions, they discovered the still-not-known Nicole Barkes and could see that the SUV was being driven by another subject who turned out to be Alequin.

After locating red-light cameras in the area of the businesses, the detectives were able to view video from the systems that was supplied by Forest Park Police. From that video, detectives discovered the license plate on a Chevrolet Traverse SUV that was owned by Barkes that had been captured during the timeframe she and Alequin were in the area.

Police solidified her identity by comparing her driver’s license photo with pictures taken at the Berwyn and Forrest Park businesses and also from two Aurora pawn shops where Barkes was known to do business. She was taken into custody without incident by Aurora Police detectives and Community Policing officers on Feb. 9 after they traveled to Sheridan and set up a surveillance on her home. They then witnessed her entering a car registered to one of her relatives and were able to stop it on Route 71 in Norway, IL.

Alequin eluded authorities until February 17 when agents from the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Fugitive Task Force were able to trace him to an Aurora hospital where he was taken into custody without incident. Aside from the charges connected to the robbery, Alequin was also wanted on a contempt of court warrant by the Kane County Sheriff’s Office.

According to charging documents, Alequin and Barkes pulled the robbery so they could get money for their heroin addictions.

SOURCE: city of Aurora news release