Where a defendant has a prior conviction that serves as a basis for an armed habitual criminal sentence, it is not necessary that the earlier conviction consists of identical elements of the crime as the current statute, so long as they are equivalent.The 1st District Appellate Court affirmed the decision of Cook County Associate Judge Joseph Michael Claps.Near 3 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2012, two officers driving in an unmarked squad car spotted a man holding a gun and standing in front of an electronics store. He was pointing …