ESL man gets life in prison for armed robberies in ESL, Belleville

A man who robbed two metro-east businesses in 2013 and who left a pawn shop owner paralyzed for life will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Southern Illinois U.S. Attorney Stephen Wigginton’s office announced Wednesday that Timothy Collier, 48, of East St. Louis, will have no chance at parole. Collier received the sentence Wednesday in federal court.

According to the announcement, Collier shot the owner of East St. Louis Jewelry and Pawn four times — including once in the chest and once in the head — before robbing the store of hundreds of pieces of jewelry, cash and a gun on April 25, 2013. The shopkeeper, Larry Osborn, now uses a wheelchair.

Then, on July 12, 2013, Collier, his neice and another man conspired to rob Arena Liquors. Collier and the man, Roderick Taylor, made off with a large sum of cash and a victim’s cell phone, but no one was hurt in that robbery.

Collier was convicted in November 2014.

This story was originally published July 15, 2015 at 5:40 PM with the headline "ESL man gets life in prison for armed robberies in ESL, Belleville."