A Cook County judge sentenced a Skokie resident Friday to 12 years in state prison after Evanston police arrested him in 2013.

Blair Aikens, 28, was arrested in Evanston in July 2013 in connection with weapons possession, police said. A jury found Aikens guilty last month for the offense of armed habitual criminal at the Cook County Circuit Court in Skokie, police said.

Aikens is required to serve 85 percent of the sentence in prison due to the seriousness of the offense, police said.

Evanston police originally arrested Aikens and another felon, Antoine Hill, in July 2013, police said.

Officers approached the two men July 16, 2013, in the 1800 block of Brown Avenue after seeing Aikens, who was wanted for a Pennsylvania narcotics warrant at the time, police said. The two men fled on foot, but police caught up with them and found two loaded 9 mm handguns in their possession. The two were charged with unlawful use of weapons by a felon.

Before the incident, Hill was convicted of an Evanston homicide in 2005. He was found guilty of second-degree murder of the shooting of an Evanston man, 22, inside The Keg of Evanston, which was located at 810 Grove St., police said. Hill was released on parole in 2012.

Hill is still awaiting trial for the 2013 arrest.

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