Woman gets 9 years for breaking into homes while victims attended wakes
A 25-year-old Johnsburg woman, who was accused along with her husband of burglarizing homes while the victims were attending wakes, pleaded guilty Tuesday and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Jacquelyn S. Buchholz will serve the sentence at the same time as sentences for burglaries in Boone County, according to court records.
Her husband, Jason K. Werner, 27, is due in court in Woodstock later this week.
Authorities said the pair confessed to reading obituaries in newspapers to target homes to burglarize while families were attending wakes.
The couple were arrested Sept. 21 in the home they shared on the 100 block of Pleasant View Drive. The arrest came a day after Barrington police responded to a burglary in progress and found Buchholz’s phone at the scene. They used it to track her and her husband to their home in Johnsburg.
McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney David Johnston said the pair are heroin addicts and they confessed to numerous burglaries in unincorporated areas of McHenry, Boone and Cook counties.
“They both confessed to their involvement in the burglaries. They did burglaries in three different counties,” Johnston said. “The state will seek restitution for each and every victim (at a later court date).”
Buchholz pleaded guilty to two counts of felony residential burglary, according to court records.
In exchange for the plea, McHenry County prosecutors dropped at least 10 other felony charges against Buchholz, records show.
Buchholz can be out of prison by March 2017, as she will get credit for time served since her arrest, and she also may have her sentenced halved for good behavior while behind bars.
McHenry County Assistant Public Defender Rick Behof could not be reached for comment.
McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather accepted the plea agreement for Buchholz. Werner is due in Prather’s court Thursday.
Robert Zalud, the prosecutor for Werner’s case, could not be reached for comment.
Werner has three cases pending in McHenry County; each carries a prison term of between four and 15 years if convicted.