CHICAGO – It started as a tasty Saturday night dinner at a popular West Town seafood joint. But officials say a group of rowdy tourists dining at another table sent a Chicago man down a path that has now ended with a 10-year prison sentence.
All was well for the tourists, who came from Michigan and Ohio, as they dined with a table of friends on the second floor of Alegrias Seafood, 1024 North Ashland, on May 1, 2021. But at a nearby table, they say prosecutors, Claudious Payne was not happy with their enthusiasm.
Payne, 32, approached the table and told the group they were being loud and disrespectful, prosecutors said. He then complained to a manager, who spoke to the tourist table. But the group continued to party and Payne ordered a man at the table to pay for his family’s dinner. At one point, Payne became so angry that he threw a large tray full of seafood at the man.
And then the prison stuff started.
Prosecutors said Payne lifted his shirt to reveal a gun in his waistband. As diners tried to calm him down, he pulled the gun from his trouser string and pistol-whipped one of the tourists in the face, prosecutors said.
At that point, another member of the tour group pulled out his own credit card and asked Payne to follow him to the cashier so he could pay for the Payne family’s meal, prosecutors said. Surveillance video allegedly showed Payne following the man to the register with a gun in his hand.
Police, alerted by a 911 caller who pleaded with them to get to the restaurant before someone was shot, arrested Payne a block away. But police never found a gun. Prosecutors said the victims identified Payne as the perpetrator. They said almost all of the events were captured on the restaurant’s surveillance footage.
“This is what they take from visiting our city,” Judge Arthur Willis sighed as he heard the allegations during Payne’s initial bail hearing. “That’s what they get.”
Payne has now pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted armed robbery and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. Judge Kenneth Wadas sentenced him to 10 years in prison for the attempted robbery and a concurrent term of 3 years for the weapons charge.
Prosecutors dropped a handful of other crimes, including an escape from an electronic monitoring case that Payne picked up while the case was pending.
After receiving a 50% sentence reduction for good behavior and credit for time served in prison and on an ankle monitor, he is expected to be released on June 23, 2026.
Payne’s situation was made more tenuous by his criminal record, which included seven prior felony convictions, mostly for retail theft, along with one count of burglary and two narcotics charges.
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