Anthony Jones, top left inset, Cordell Reed, bottom left inset, and Nathaniel Gentry, bottom right inset, were killed while they played a card game. Reed’s nephew, Cloanger Robinson, top right inset, was sentenced to life in prison for the killings. (Crime scene screenshot from WCIA/YouTube; Mug shot from Danville Police Department via WCIA; Victims’ photos from their obituaries)
An Illinois man was sentenced to life in prison after he turned his uncle’s card game into a nightmare by stabbing and bludgeoning him and two friends to death one night in 2020.
Cloanger Robinson, 22, was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison in the killings of his uncle, Cordell J. Reed Sr., 67, and Reed’s friends Nathaniel N. Gentry, 65, and Anthony D. Jones, 60, the Vermilion County State’s Attorney’s Office announced in a news release. Robinson was found guilty of first-degree murder on May 24.
A prosecutor read emotional victim impact statements during the sentencing hearing.
“Prior to his death, we were making plans for my son and father to meet for the very first time. Now that will never happen,” Gentry’s daughter wrote, according to the news release. “Words cannot explain the pain that is in my soul.”
In the statement, she addressed Robinson, saying, “You cannot undo what you did, but you can become a brand-new person through the grace of God.”
Jones’ brother was devastated.
“I have faith that restitution will present itself through remorse in the damages brought upon my family, not only in ripping a beloved family member from us, but also in the destruction of our family home,” he wrote. “The impact is that of what my brother Anthony left with all of those that loved him, through his kindness … he served his country. He served his community in volunteering, and he served his Lord through his faith.”
State’s Attorney Jacqueline Lacy said the killings of the innocent victims were cruel.
“The brutal nature of these murders was inconceivable, especially considering the fact that Cloanger Robinson was related to two of the elderly victims,” Lacy said in the news release. “Their families did not deserve to have their loved ones stolen from them.”
Robinson said nothing in court, but his defense attorney said he was sorry, the Commercial-News reported.
The men were killed on Jan. 22, 2020. Reed had invited Robinson, then 18 years old, and two juveniles, then ages 16 and 17, into his home. But the defendants weren’t there for cards.
“Once invited in, they planned to steal some weed in the victims’ possession,” prosecutors said.
The younger men entered the residence wearing latex gloves under knit gloves.
At one point, Robinson got into an argument with Gentry and struck him in the head three times with a baseball bat, prosecutors said the defendant later admitted during testimony in court. A second co-defendant, Terrion Tinsley, then 16, stabbed Reed and brutally beat and bludgeoned the victims to death, prosecutors said evidence showed at Tinsley’s trial.
Police found the bodies of the three victims stabbed and bludgeoned in the home on Elm Street the following day after one of their family members made the discovery and called 911, officials said.
The three defendants were quickly arrested. Authorities said they linked the defendants to the crime through DNA found on discarded clothing at one of their homes and latex gloves inside knit gloves that a tipster allegedly found dumped in storm drains blocks from where the murders occurred.
Tinsley was sentenced on April 1 to life in prison. A second unidentified juvenile pleaded guilty to robbery and agreed to testify for the prosecution.
Gentry served in the U.S. Army, his obituary said.
Ed Butler, a friend of the men, told The News-Gazette that the victims were retired.
“Those three guys all hung together and developed a really good relationship,” Butler said.
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