People v. Pearson

Defendant appeals a bench trial verdict convicting him of robbery and aggravated battery and the 20-year and 5-year concurrent prison terms imposed. We affirm.

Beverly Ruiz, a 66-year-old woman, was unloading her groceries from her parked car in an alley behind her home about noon on October 12, 1998, when a man wearing a white T-shirt approached. The man asked Beverly what time it was. As she looked at her watch, the man grabbed her purse off her shoulder. Beverly was knocked to the ground in the struggle that followed. The man took the purse and left in a white car. Beverly noted the license…