Friday, more than five years after a Marengo gas station clerk was pistol-whipped and shot during a robbery by two masked men, the shooter was convicted.

A jury found Walter Moran, 32, of Cicero, guilty of armed robbery, armed violence and aggravated battery with gunfire, Class X felonies.

Prosecutors said about 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 24, 2021, Brian Pemble, then a 35-year-old father of five, was working his second job as an overnight clerk at the Circle K/Shell gas station after working all day at this full-time job.

In closing arguments Friday, McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney William Bruce outlined the state’s case in great detail, including the six months of detective work that involved reviewing cellphone texts and photos, social media posts and Google search histories, as well as miles of cell tower pings.

Moran and Antonio Pedrote, 30, of Chicago, entered the store as Pemble was in the beer cooler stocking. He came out when he heard the door chimes and in a friendly tone welcomed the men. But they came into the store armed, masked and wearing black hoodies armed. Their objective was “money and terror,” Bruce said.

Bruce then played the video captured by a surveillance camera.

Pedrote, nicknamed “Trigger,” while holding a gun behind him, pushed Pemble toward the cash register and pistol-whipped him four times. Pedrote demanded the money out of the register then said it wasn’t enough. Pedrote and Moran yelled at Pemble to open the safe, which was below the cash register. Moran grabbed Pemble by the neck, forced him to the ground in front of the safe and ordered him to open it. Both assailants, appearing agitated, yelled and swore at Pemble. Pemble repeatedly told them he cannot open the safe.

Then Moran told Pemble he had until the count of three to comply with their commands. On three, Moran shot Pemble in the thigh, then held the gun to his head as Pedrote yelled, “King! King!” and both men left the store. Prosecutors said King is one of Moran’s nicknames, in addition to Silent and Rey Silencio, meaning King Silence, prosecutors said.

Bruce questioned the purpose of shooting Pemble.

“It’s absurd,” Bruce said. “They menaced him, forced him into submission.”

Early on, authorities said, investigators learned Pedrote and Moran also robbed a store in Aurora eight hours prior. This also was recorded on surveillance video and played during Friday’s closings.

In that robbery, the two men were masked and wearing the same footwear, with the man authorities said was Pedrote wearing the same shirt as seen in the Marengo robbery. The clerk in the Aurora store was also pistol-whipped, and the man authorities said was Moran held a pistol to a clerk’s head and forced him into a submissive position on the floor.

In the Marengo case, Moran’s attorney, Gran McKerlie, argued Moran was not the shooter and sought to pin it on Greg Lee Garner Jr., who authorities have maintained was the getaway driver.

Garner, now serving a 13-year prison term in the Marengo robbery, testified this week that he was the driver in both that and the Aurora robbery.

Garner said he helped plan the robbery in Aurora, having grown up in the area and being familiar with it, and secured the gun that was used, but was only the driver.

Garner said he drove his vehicle with Pedrote, Moran and another man, who has not been charged, from Chicago to Aurora. After that robbery, while drinking liquor stolen during the Aurora robbery, he testified that he drove to a bar in Harvard. The group then went to a motel where Garner said he was planning on meeting up with a woman, but after Pedrote, Moran and the other man started fighting, they left the motel.

It was after that, Garner testified, that Moran and Pedrote committed the crimes in the Circle K. He said he then drove the pair back to Little Village in Chicago.

McKerlie argued that Garner is not “credible” or “believable” and the state has “pinned” its theory to Garner’s story. Garner is the “mastermind” and the person in the video with Pedrote at both robberies, McKerlie said, noting a detective testified that at one point, Garner was suspected to be the shooter.

McKerlie said the sweatshirt the man with Pedrote was wearing during the Marengo robbery had a ghost on it and was the same shirt Garner is seen wearing in photos found on his phone. Garner also had photos on his phone of the gun – called a “hood gun” because it is used by various gang members – before, during and after the robberies. McKerlie also referred to a police interview in which Garner asked the officers if there was a way he could get out of this situation.

But prosecutors noted eyewitnesses at the Harvard bar testified that Moran was wearing the ghost shirt seen in the Marengo robbery. They put up photos from the Marengo crime of Moran wearing Garner’s ghost shirt. Bruce pointed out the shirt is much tighter on Moran than it appeared to be on Garner seen wearing it in a photo on his phone. Bruce also compared Moran’s stance and manner in which he holds the gun to the clerks’ heads in each robbery.

Phone recordings were played Friday of conversations Pedrote had from McHenry County jail with Moran before Moran’s arrest. Jurors heard Pedrote say to Moran: “These people will never shake my leaves. My leaves staying on my tree. I love you. I’m not gonna fold. I’m not gonna roll on you.”

Bruce said if Moran was not guilty of the crime, he would have asked Pedrote what he was talking about and said he didn’t do anything.

Moran’s sentencing is set for July 23. He faces decades in prison.

In 2023, Garner, 31, pleaded guilty to armed robbery without a firearm in the Marengo case, resulting in his 13-year sentence, court records show. He was transferred from prison to McHenry County jail to testify against Moran.

In 2025, Pedrote, 30, of Chicago pleaded guilty in the case to armed robbery with a firearm, a Class X felony, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, court records show.

Pemble, now 40 and the father of six children, is unemployed, walks with a cane and needs a spinal stimulator to control the pain so he can sleep. He is in pain daily, he testified.