3 more charged in recent looting, including woman on bond for same crime

Three more people have been charged in connection to the recent looting downtown, including a woman who already appeared in court for the same crime days before and a man who allegedly said he was pressured into it.

Gabrielle McGriff — a mother of four who works at a Maywood restaurant — arranged to sell a pair of $1,400 boots for $1,100 online, but was unknowingly speaking with undercover officers who arrested her and her boyfriend at a Far South Side McDonalds Monday, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said.

Boutique Brunello Cucinelli, the Rush Street store the woman stole from, sustained $1 million in damages from last week’s looting, prosecutors said.

McGriff was ordered held on $5,000 bail for theft Tuesday. Her boyfriend, Cornelius Lyons, also charged with theft, was ordered held on $2,000 bail.

McGriff, 29, had just appeared in court last week for allegedly looting a downtown Macy’s Aug. 10. She was out on bond for that matter before her arrest Monday.

In that case, she told investigators she was downtown with friends when she saw people inside the closed store and said, “F--- it,” and went in, Murphy said. She allegedly took four shirts, but dropped them when she was confronted by officers who chased her to a vestibule, where she was arrested.

Another man told investigators he broke the window of a Gold Coast Hermes of Paris on Aug. 10 and stole a purse “because of peer pressure,” prosecutors said.

Donell Brandon, a 30-year-old laborer at a Far South Side metal company, said “his buddy called him and said that everyone was meeting downtown,” Murphy said in court Tuesday. “He said they decided to meet at Hermes. He said that once they went there, he decided to do what everybody else was doing.”

Brandon tried selling the designer bag on the online marketplace OfferUp, but instead arranged to sell it to an undercover law enforcement officer who arranged to meet him on the West Side, where he was arrested with the stolen bag Monday, Murphy said.

Judge John F. Lyke Jr. ordered Brandon held on $3,000 bail for retail theft, looting and burglary. Lyke said Brandon “appears to be doing well in life” and warned him to “get back on the straight and narrow.”

On Monday, seven people were charged with felony counts in connection to recent looting.