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A convicted felon has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in a 2006 home invasion in south suburban Oak Forest in which the homeowner and his family were terrorized at gunpoint by multiple offenders who mistakenly believed that drugs and money were stashed in the house, according to the Office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.

Charles Lawson, 31, of Chicago, was convicted of Home Invasion and Aggravated Kidnapping charges in connection with the incident.  Lawson has two previous Class X felony convictions for Armed Robbery in 1998 and 2003.  The Class X convictions made him eligible for the natural life sentence, which was imposed at the Markham courthouse by Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Rhodes. 

According to prosecutors, Lawson and two additional defendants targeted the 46-year-old homeowner as he was entering his front door because they mistakenly believed that money and drugs were in the home.  The victim lived in the home with his wife, three daughters and his 82-year- old father. 

During the early morning on August 15, 2006, around 12:30 a.m., the victim was returning home after going to the store.  As he unlocked the front door of his Oak Forest home, Lawson and co-defendant Jason Thomas pointed guns at the victim’s head and forced their way inside the home.

The victim’s daughters, ages 17, 15 and 7, were forced at gunpoint into the basement of the home to the bedroom of their 82–year-old grandfather who was asleep.   

According to prosecutors, Lawson took one of the female victims to look for money and drugs. By this time the third co-defendant, Dornell Hicks, had also entered the home.  The wife of the victim who was asleep upstairs in the home heard the commotion and called police and the defendants fled.  They were later apprehended by the police and charged. 

The co-defendants in this case were both previously convicted and sentenced to prison.  Hicks was convicted in 2008 of Home Invasion and Aggravated Kidnapping charges and sentenced to life in prison.  Thomas pled guilty in 2009 to Home Invasion charges and was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

State’s Attorney Alvarez thanked Assistant State’s attorneys Theodore Lagerwall, Daniel Maloney and Denise Tomasek for their handling of the case.

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