- DOCUMENT: Maday's letter to then-girlfriend
Maday and his attorney knew the escape and bank robbery charges were hard to beat. They were hoping a jury would spare Maday on one of the firearms charges. After about 2 1/2 hours of deliberations, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all five counts.
Surveillance video captured Maday in action. A federal jury found the 42-year-old career criminal guilty of robbing a Bloomingdale bank two years ago. The robbery was just one of many crimes Maday committed during a 27-hour violent crime spree after he escaped from custody.
Prosecutors say Maday's own words helped convict him, including a letter he sent to his girlfriend telling her he was so close in getting away with it, and bragging while he was on the lam.
"He was telling numerous people he came into contact with that he was the escapee on the run," said assistant U.S. attorney Annie Kastanek. "He seemed to think in his own mind that he was this legendary criminal."
Maday was already a convicted bank robber when he escaped from custody while being driven to court by two Cook County state's attorney investigators. Maday freed himself from restraints and snatched the investigators guns.
Maday used those guns to carjack two women in separate incidents before robbing the bank. Even though he told tellers he had a gun, one is never seen in the video.
"We thought there was a real question on whether he did have a gun when the bank was robbed," said Maday's attorney Anthony Sassan. "We were confident they would come back with a non-guilty on that."
Maday's attorney was hoping to get some years shaved off his client's sentence for the specific count of using a gun during a robbery. Maday shook his head in disbelief when that guilty verdict was read.
Prosecutors say there was plenty of evidence to prove Maday had a gun at the bank.
"It included the bulge under his shirt that was shown in video as well statement to tellers that the tellers testified about in the trial," said Kastenek.
A gun was found on Maday's waist hours later when he was caught after crashing while being chased by police.
Maday is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison. Besides federal convictions, he already faces 43 years in state prison for previous crimes and the carjackings involved during his two days on the run.
Maday's attorney says an addiction to cocaine is what led his client to pursue a life of crime.
