The violent robbery crew had already shot the manager of a Humboldt Park liquor store and threatened to kill an employee at a nearby food mart when they burst into the Irish Nobleman Pub on Chicago’s Near West Side one night in May 2024 wearing ski masks.

One of the robbers, Jordan Fox pointed a Glock pistol that had been converted to be fully automatic at the people in the pub — including patrons, a bartender, a waitress and the owner — and yelled for them to put their hands up, federal prosecutors alleged.

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Cell phone video shows brothers Xavier Harris (right) and Ardaries Harris counting cash from a string of armed robberies of liquor stores on May 4, 2024. (U.S. attorney’s office)

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“Come here, everybody come here before I drop the switch!” Fox said. “Come here. Fully automatic. Come on.”

When the owner ran across the street to his house to call 911, Fox fired at him but missed, and the crew ran from the pub without any money, according to prosecutors.

Three days later, however, they were back at it, robbing three bars and liquor stores in Chicago at gunpoint, beating and pistol-whipping customers and employees who got in their way, according to prosecutors. When they were done, they gathered at an apartment to count their spoils, shooting video on their phones as they sipped from a bottle of high-end tequila taken in one of the heists.

“I’m stackin’ this sh– all summer and all winter,” Ardaries Harris said on one video, holding a pile of cash while still wearing the black clothing he was seen in during the robberies.

That string of heists over several hours on May 3 and May 4, 2024, were among 14 similar crimes highlighted during five-week federal trial that ended Tuesday with a federal jury finding Fox, 26, Harris, 28, and his brother, Xavier Harris, 27, guilty of conspiracy, robbery, and firearm offenses.

The jury found that all three brandished firearms during at least some of the robberies, and that Fox discharged a machine gun during the robbery of the Irish Nobleman Pub and that Ardaries Harris aided Fox’s discharge of a machine gun, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

The convictions carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. And while the trial focused on 14 incidents, federal authorities believe the same crew was responsible for dozens more heists around the Chicago area, some of which they intend to highlight at sentencing.

Reached by phone Thursday, attorney Richard Kling, who represents Ardaries Harris, declined to comment because it is a pending case. Attorneys for Xavier Harris declined to comment, while lawyers for Fox could not immediately be reached.

A fourth defendant, Roosevelt Veal, will be tried separately, though a date has yet to be set. A fifth member of the crew was killed in a shooting on the Eisenhower Expressway before charges were brought, records show.

The investigation, which was led by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, was the latest to single out the use of guns outfitted with automatic switches, which allow it to fire dozens of shots in seconds with just a single pull of the trigger. The charge of using such a machine gun during a crime of violence carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years behind bars.

“Machinegun conversion devices turn semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic weapons, capable of firing multiple bullets at the single pull of a trigger,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros said in a news release this week. “They have proliferated on the streets of Chicago. The office will continue to prosecute the use of these lethal weapons vigorously.”

ATF Special Agent in Charge Christopher Amon said the guilty verdict is the result of “the tireless investigative work” of the agency and its law enforcement partners, and “sends a clear message that violent offenders will be held accountable.”

In a court filing earlier this year laying out the evidence, prosecutors said the robbery crew followed a similar pattern, where groups of two to four defendants would enter a business with firearms drawn, wearing masks covering the majority of their faces and “layered, inside-out clothing and gloves.”

Fox would typically steal the money from the store’s cash register and any “drop money” stored nearby, according to the filing by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emily C.R. Vermylen, Stephanie Stern, and Jalan Jaskot.

Other members of the crew “would take control of store patrons and employees at gunpoint, robbing them of their cash and confiscating their cell phones,” while often beating or pistol-whipping the victims, according to the prosecution filing. The robbers also used stolen cars as getaway vehicles.

The robberies highlighted in the trial began in August 2023 at Ace’s Liquor and Tap in the 4400 block of West Armitage Avenue, and ended nearly a year later with the May 9, 2024, heist at Basil Food & Liquor in West Rogers Park, according to court records. The robberies occurred all over Chicago, including neighborhoods such as Wicker Park, Lincoln Park, and Back of the Yards.

Hours before the attempted robbery at the Irish Nobleman Pub, the crew had targeted Humboldt Haus Liquor on West North Avenue, where Fox used a gun that they had stolen from a robbery in 2023 and converted to fully automatic.

Fox pointed the weapon at the store manager behind the counter and fired a shot, striking the him in the hand, according to prosecutors. The manager fired back and the crew ran out of the store, “leaving a trail of blood and shell casings behind them,” the prosecution filing stated.

An hour later, while holding up the Gladstone Food Mart in the 5700 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, Fox could be heard on surveillance video telling an employee to “lay down” and give him all the money, while Veal stated, “open the (ex[pletive) register before you die,” according to prosecutors.

The crime spree ended two days later when Fox was shot in the shoulder during an attempted robbery. On their way to the hospital, the crew fired a shot into the air and Fox, who checked in under a false name, told police he’d been shot at that location.

While he was still in the emergency room, Fox posted a selfie on his Facebook account showing him in a hospital bed with a wound to the left shoulder, prosecutors said.

The caption read: “All these sins and God still not ready fa me yet.”

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com