From The State’s Attorney:
ANTONIO PEDROTE SENTENCED TO TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS FOR ARMED ROBBERY WITH A FIREARM
McHenry County State’s Attorney Randi L. Freese announces that on July 11, 2025, Antonio Pedrote, 30, of Berwyn, Illinois, was sentenced to twenty-five years in the Illinois Department of Corrections by the Honorable Mark Gerhardt.
Pedrote entered into a negotiated plea to one count of Armed Robbery, a Class X felony, where he accepted responsibility for his participation in the crime that he committed with other cohorts, who robbed a Circle K convenience store in Marengo on February 24, 2021.
Pedrote was one of two masked offenders who robbed the store’s lone employee at 3:37 a.m.
Pedrote held the victim at gunpoint and pistol whipped him.
After taking cash from the register, Pedrote demanded the victim open a safe.
Although the victim did not have access to the safe, the defendants accused him of refusing to open it and being a “hero.”
The incident was captured on multiple video surveillance cameras that contained audio.
After counting to three, the second offender, Walter Moran, of Cicero, shot the victim in the thigh.
After the two gunmen realized that the victim could not meet their demands, they fled to a waiting getaway car being driven by a third defendant, Gregory Garner, of Chicago.
Garner previously pleaded guilty in 2023 to Armed Robbery in exchange for thirteen years IDOC.
Though Moran’s McHenry County case is still pending, he was recently convicted and sentenced to 15 years and 8 months in federal court in an unrelated case of kidnapping and aggravated vehicular hijacking that occurred in Cook County.
Truth-in-Sentencing will require that Pedrote serve 85 percent of his sentence prior to release from custody.
Following that prison sentence, he will be placed on a term of Mandatory Supervised Release for three years.
State’s Attorney Freese is grateful for the extensive efforts of Detective Andrew Taylor of the Marengo Police Department and collaborative work with members of the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Investigations Unit, Harvard Police Department, McHenry County Sheriff’s Office, and Aurora Police Department.
She also extends a special thanks to Cook County Sheriff Investigator Evan Fermaint, Aurora Detective Jeff Koenings and FBI Special Agent Jeremy Bauer of the Chicago Field Office of the Cellular Analysis Survey Team.
This case was successfully prosecuted by Chief of Staff Ashley Romito and Special Prosecutor William Bruce.
