No bond for man charged in robberies with Loyola freshman as getaway driver

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Makiah Barnes (left), Tiara Collins | Chicago Police

CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) - Bond was denied Friday for a south suburban man has been charged with a series of North Side robberies that authorities say he carried out with the help of a Loyola University freshman who drove the getaway car.

William Sims, a 23-year-old Harvey resident, faces four felony counts of armed robbery and one of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, Chicago Police announced early Friday.

Makiah M. Burns, an 18-year-old Hazel Crest woman whose Facebook page says she’s a pre-med student, was charged earlier this month with helping Sims and another woman in a Wicker Park robbery Oct. 5 that left a man shot in the eye with a pellet gun, police said.

About 10 p.m. that night, Burns drove Sims and 18-year-old Tiara Collins to an alley in the 2000 block of West Concord Pace, where they stopped a 32-year-old man and showed a fake revolver, Cook County prosecutors said at Burns’ bond hearing.

One of the robbers then shot the man in the left eye with a pellet gun, and they made off with his laptop bag, cell phone and a wallet containing about $100, prosecutors said.

The man was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital in serious condition. He had to have surgery to remove a piece of metal from his cheek has lost the vision in his injured eye, prosecutors said.

A witness saw a partial license plate number of the car which was traced to Burns, prosecutors said. She told police she’s a Loyola student.

Burns was also driving the car earlier in the evening when Sims and Collins tried to steal the phone of a 23-year-old woman who was walking in the 2900 block of North Ridgeway, authorities said. One of the robbers punched her and the other beat her in the head with the pellet gun, prosecutors said.

Sims is also charged with another robbery that happened the same night in the 3200 block of North Drake, as well as another on Oct. 8 in the 2100 block of West Schiller, police said.

Burns was charged with two counts of armed robbery and released after posting 10 percent of a $250,000 bond on Oct. 23, according to court records.

Collins, of the 3400 block of West Belmont, was arrested Oct. 15 and charged with one count of armed robbery, police said. She remains held on the same bond amount. They both are due back in court Monday.

Sims appeared in court Friday where a judge ordered him held without bond, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office. He is due back in court Monday.