WOODRIDGE MAN GETS 27 YEARS FOR HOME INVASION/ATTEMPTED ESCAPE

WHEATON – DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett announced today that Gregory Martin, 26 (d.o.b. 06/28/1981) of ­­­­­­2430 S. Wolfe Drive, Woodridge, was sentenced to 23 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for an early morning home invasion of a Glendale Heights home.  Martin entered a plea of guilty to one count of Home Invasion Armed With a Firearm, a Class X Felony and one count of Conspiracy to Commit Aggravated Kidnapping, a Class 1 Felony, on December 19, 2007 in front of Judge Michael Burke.  In addition to the 23 year sentence Martin received for the home invasion, he was also sentenced to 4 consecutive years in IDOC for attempting to escape from the DuPage County Jail while this case was pending.

            The charges and today’s sentencing stem from allegations that at approximately 5 a.m. on July 17, 2006, Martin and an accomplice, William Hancock, 28 (d.o.b. 1/17/1979) of Lempster, New Hampshire, broke into the Glendale Heights home while the family slept.  When one of the victims awoke to find Martin and his accomplice standing in the hallway, the men ordered the entire family onto the bed in the master bedroom and told them to be quiet.    Martin was armed with a gun while Hancock was armed with a cleaver.  Both men disguised their identities wearing wigs and surgical masks.  When one of the victims called police on their cellular phone, the assailants fled the scene.  Martin was apprehended a short time later by Glendale Heights Police.  On March 14, 2008, Judge Michael Burke sentenced Hancock to 15 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections after Hancock entered a plea of guilty to one count of Home Invasion.

“Today Mr. Martin learned that for his actions on July 17, 2006 and attempting to escape from the DuPage County Jail, he will spend the next 27 years of his life behind bars,” remarked Birkett.   “The sentence handed down by Judge Burke today sends a clear message that victimizing people where they feel most secure, in their own home, will not be tolerated and will carry a significant punishment.  I would like to thank the Glendale Heights Police Department in particular Detective Charles May for his fine investigative skills, as well as Assistant State’s Attorney Helen Kapas-Erdman for her work in putting Mr. Martin behind bars for a long time where he will be unable to victimize any other families in the middle of the night. ”      

Martin’s wife, Larisa Sazhin Martin, 30, was sentenced to six years in IDOC after admitting she was the getaway driver for the two men.

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