Man gets 90 years for killing ex-wife on Thanksgiving 2011

A Chicago man has been sentenced to 90 years in prison for the murder of his ex-wife in a Near West Side parking lot on Thanksgiving Day in 2011.

Earl Roberts, 52, was convicted of first-degree murder for the death of 48-year-old Angela Bonds, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

About 11:50 p.m. on Nov. 24, 2011, Roberts ambushed Bonds as she clocked out of her job in the Building Services Department at UIC Hospital, and walked to her car with her fiance, prosecutors said.

Roberts was waiting and followed behind as they walked down the hospital corridors, prosecutors said. Surveillance footage captured him following the couple for about five minutes.

As Bonds, her fiance and another hospital employee entered the parking garage, Roberts came up from behind them, pulled out a .357 revolver and began shooting, prosecutors said.

The first bullet shattered a nearby window and the second struck Bonds in the back, knocking her to the concrete floor, prosecutors said.

Roberts then stood over his ex-wife and fired another bullet into the top of her head, prosecutors said. The shooting was captured on hospital surveillance video.

Roberts ran away after the shooting, but he was later arrested and police recovered the murder weapon, his clothing and the gloves he wore during the murder, prosecutors said.

Judge Angela Petrone sentenced Roberts to 90 years in prison during a hearing Monday, according to the state’s attorney’s office.