Guilty plea in downtown Elgin cellphone store burglary
An Elgin man pleaded guilty Friday to a May 7 smash-and-grab burglary of an downtown cellphone store. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 30 months of probation.
Lacey Ousley, 19, of the 500 block of Highland Avenue, also was fined $1,780 and can be resentenced to up to seven years in prison if he gets in trouble before January 2016.
Ousley had been in jail for 79 days since his arrest.
Kane County Judge Karen Simpson accepted the plea, according to court records.
According to an Elgin police report, Ousley offered to pay a man named Alexander Bizefski $200 if he broke into a store on the 100 block of South Grove Avenue and stole the phones.
Ousley and a third suspect, Awaan D. Woods, were accused of acting as lookouts after a rock was used to break the window. Police said as many as nine phones were stolen.
Woods, 17, also of the 500 block of Highland Avenue, Elgin, has applied for Kane County’s Pretrial Diversion program, which is for first-time, nonviolent offenders to have a chance to wipe away a felony conviction. He is next due in court on Aug. 24 for a judge to consider his application.
Bizefski, 18, also of the 500 block of Highland, is being held at the Kane County jail on $20,000 bail and is next due in court on Wednesday.
All three men are residents of the Larkin Center, a home for troubled youths who are in the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.