Danville man convicted of murdering uncle, two others
DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA) — A 22-year-old man from Danville faces life in prison after a Vermilion County jury convicted him on Friday of murdering three men in their 60s, including his uncle, four years ago.
The Vermilion County State’s Attorney’s Office said that after a week-long trial, 22-year-old Cloanger Robinson was found guilty of murdering Nathaniel Gentry, Anthony Jones and Cordell Reed on Jan. 22, 2020. The three were brutally beaten and stabbed to death, a crime that State’s Attorney Jacqueline Lacy called “inconceivable.”
“My continued condolences are with the families of these men,” she said. “I am grateful that the jury returned a guilty verdict and I am hopeful that the families can begin to find a sense of closure.”
Prosecutors said that on that day, the three victims spent time together with friends and then played cards at Reed’s home on Elm Street. Eyewitnesses said Reed allowed his nephew Robinson, then 18 years old, into his home along with two juveniles. One of them was 16-year-old Terrion Tinsley.
Evidence revealed that the three suspects planned to steal marijuana from Reed’s home. During his own testimony, Robinson said he admitted to getting into an argument with Gentry and hit him three times in the head with a baseball bat. Tinsley also took part by beating and stabbing Gentry and Reed.
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“What Cloanger Robinson did to his own family is unimaginable, but he did it,” Lacy said during closing arguments.
Evidence tying the suspects to the crime was found in the form of three pairs of latex gloves found near Reed’s home and in clothes that were found discarded in a garbage can at one of Robinson’s co-defendants. DNA found on the clothing matched the three victims and DNA on the inside of the clothes revealed Robinson was the one wearing them.
“Cloanger Robinson wasn’t expecting that when he ran to and from his co-defendant’s residence, under the cover of darkness to discard his clothes, that he would be caught on a nearby security camera,” Lacy said during arguments.
Robinson is scheduled to be sentenced on July 2. His two co-defendants have already been sentenced; Tinsley was sentenced to life in prison in April while the other juvenile they were with took a plea deal. He pleaded guilty to robbery in juvenile court in exchange for cooperating as a witness against Tinsley and Robinson.
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