A man with a long criminal history pleaded guilty Thursday to robbing a musician of a $10,000 violin aboard a CTA Blue Line train in the Loop this spring.
Timothy Johnson, 39, pleaded guilty to robbery in exchange for a six-year sentence from Judge Stanley Sacks. The sentence will be cut in half with good behavior.
Prosecutors said Johnson was riding a Blue Line train near Clark-Lake on the evening of April 11 when he saw an opportunity: a violin case that 22-year-old musician Cyrus Spurlock was carrying as he rode to Wicker Park.
Johnson grabbed the case and fought off Spurlock’s resistance as CTA cameras rolled, prosecutors said. Police launched a search for the violin, which was handmade by Spurlock’s brother, even releasing images of it to the public, but there are no indications it has been found…