Cook County man sentenced to twenty years for armed habitual criminal conviction

A Cook County man was sentenced on April 14 to twenty years in the Illinois Department of Corrections after being found guilty of illegally possessing a machine gun, according to DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin. Curtis Lyons, 41, formerly of Maywood, received his sentence from Judge Ann Celine O’Hallaren Walsh following a guilty verdict in January for one count of Armed Habitual Criminal and several counts related to unlawful weapon possession.

The sentencing follows an incident on January 25, 2023, when Villa Park Police responded to reports of shots fired at Chatham and Plymouth. Officers discovered shell casings at the scene and later identified Lyons as having arranged a drug sale while armed with a firearm modified to fire automatically. After executing a search warrant at a residence on Cornell, police recovered two firearms—including one with an automatic switch—a drum magazine with ammunition, and approximately $7,000 in cash.

Lyons appeared in Bond Court two days after his arrest and was ordered held without bond. He has remained in custody since then. The court found him guilty after a three-day bench trial held in December 2025.

"Without giving a second thought to his status as a convicted felon, which prohibits him from legally possessing a firearm, Mr. Lyons thumbed his nose at the law and illegally armed himself with a machine gun before heading out on January 25, 2023," Berlin said. "This type of disregard for our criminal justice system must be met with serious consequences. I commend the Villa Park Police Department whose outstanding work led to the removal of an extremely dangerous illegal weapon from our streets and a guilty verdict for a convicted felon whose contempt for the rule of law will now be met with a twenty-year prison sentence. I thank Assistant State’s Attorneys Sara Henley, Sean Kinsella and Michael Paup for their work in holding Mr. Lyons responsible for his incredibly dangerous actions."

Lyons will be required to serve at least eighty-five percent of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

According to the Illinois State Board of Education, DuPage County had an average student-to-teacher ratio of thirteen-to-one during the 2022-23 school year across its schools serving over 142,000 students by more than ten thousand full-time faculty members. Teacher absenteeism rates were reported at thirty-eight point three percent during that same period—higher than the state average—as noted by the Board. Enrollment data shows York Community High School had the highest number of white students (1,844), Metea Valley High School had the most multiracial students (162), Westmore Elementary School recorded ten Pacific Islander students—the highest among county schools—and Addison Trail High School enrolled more Hispanic students (1,259) than any other school locally according to official records.