Man charged in Oak Lawn home invasion gets 10 years

(BRIDGEVIEW) A Chicago man charged in a 2011 Oak Lawn home invasion-turned-police chase was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday.

Keon Thigpen, 25, was one of three men charged for the Aug. 3, 2011, incident that started at a home in the 10100 block of Buell Court in Oak Lawn, police said.

The armed men approached two women sitting on the front porch and forced them around to a back door, Oak Lawn police Division Chief Mike Kaufmann said at the time.

A commotion broke out among the other people living in the home; and a man inside the home grabbed a shotgun and fired two shots, Kaufmann said.

One of the gunmen also fired a shot, hitting a 24-year-old woman in the arm, Her injury was not life-threatening, Kaufmann said.

The three fled in an SUV that headed north on Harlem Avenue into Summit, he said. They jumped from the moving vehicle at 61st Place, where two were captured, Kaufmann said. A third was arrested two hours later by Summit police.

The victimized family owned a convenience store in Chicago and had been previously targeted, Kaufmann said. They installed surveillance cameras in and around the house that led to charges against the three men.

Thigpen, of the 300 block of South Albany Avenue, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of attempted armed robbery, court records show.

Judge Stephen J. Connolly accepted the plea and handed down the 10-year-sentence, records show. Thigpen will receive credit for more than three years spent in jail since his arrest.

Another defendant in the case, 53-year-old Kennedy Clark of Chicago, was previously sentenced to serve 50 percent of a four-year prison sentence and is currently on parole, IDOC records show.

A third defendant, 31-year-old Timmie Walton of Midlothian, is awaiting trial and will next appear in court Oct. 14, records show.