Convicted murderer Steven Robbins is back in Indiana this afternoon, three days following his mistaken release from the Cook County Jail after being brought to Chicago to dispose of an old case against him, according to the Cook County sheriff's office.
As of about 2 p.m. Robbins was handed over to authorities in Michigan City, Ind., where he will resume serving his 60-year murder sentence at the Indiana Department of Correction, according to Frank Bilecki, a spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
Before being driven to Indiana Robbins appeared midday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building court for less than two minutes before Judge Edward Harmening.
Robbins, wearing a black zip-up North Face jacket over a gray hoodie sweatshirt, dark blue jeans, and black and green gyms shoes, did not address the judge but leaned over a couple of times to whisper into Asst. Public Defender Todd Chatman’s ear. His hands were cuffed in front of him.
During the hearing Chatman emphasized to Harmening that Robbins was inadvertently let go, not that he escaped on his own accord.
“He had no intention to attempt to escape,’’ Chatman told the judge in open court.
Though an escape charge was dropped, the judge ruled the arrest warrant would stay on his record. Two sheriff’s deputies accompanied Robbins before the judge.
He was taken back into custody in Kankakee Friday night and on Saturday morning Robbins was held at the Cook County Sheriff's police lockup in Maywood prior to his court hearing, said Bilecki.
Robbins, 44, who was serving a 60-year sentence for murder in Indiana, was apprehended "without incident" about 10:55 p.m. Friday in the 400 block of Fraser Avenue in Kankakee, according to Bilecki.“He was found at the home of an acquaintance, watching TV,’’ said Bilecki. “They caught him totally off guard.''
Once they got into the home, sheriff’s authorities were trying to keep everyone calm, including a couple of young children who were there with Robbins.
Bilecki said Dart was on the scene and assisted in the arrest.
Authorities tracked Robbins through interviews with family and friends who helped provide his location, according to the sheriff's office.
Earlier, Dart took responsibility for mistakenly letting Robbins walk out of County Jail after a local charge against him was dismissed.
“We let people down, no mistake about it,” Dart said in an interview at sheriff’s offices in Maywood. “Our office did not operate the way it should have, clearly.”
The FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and Cook County Crimestoppers had raised $12,000 as a reward for information leading to Robbins’ capture, he said.
Dart said his office is still looking at where and how the system broke down to allow Robbins’ mistaken release from the jail, but he said that officials at the jail had no paperwork showing he was serving time in an Indiana prison for murder.
Like other indigent people, Robbins was outfitted with clothing from Goodwill – a long-sleeve brown shirt and brown pants – before being released out the front entrance, Dart said. He also likely was given bus fare.
Dart said the sheriff’s office uses an archaic system – entirely paper-driven – in handling the movement of an average of about 1,500 inmates every day. Some are entering the jail after their arrest and others are being bused to courthouses around the county for court appearances.
The sheriff said the warrant for Robbins’ arrest should have been quashed by prosecutors when armed violence charges were dismissed against him in 2007. In addition, he said prosecutors signed off on the sheriff’s office traveling to Indiana to pick up Robbins at the prison in Michigan City and bring him back on the outstanding warrant.
“We were able to get an extradition warrant on a case that didn’t exist,” Dart said. “That’s the first problem.”
Earlier, documents reviewed by the Tribune showed that paperwork filled out by Cook County sheriff’s officers this week made it clear that Robbins was serving a 60-year sentence for murder in Indiana and was to be returned to authorities there after being brought to Chicago to dispose of an old case against him.
