Schaumburg man pleads guilty to drug charges, gets 10 years
A Schaumburg man who prosecutors say kept a loaded gun in his bedroom where his baby also slept and stored a drug cutting agent in a baby formula container pleaded guilty Tuesday.
John Abel Jr., 26, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday in exchange for his guilty plea to possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. He received credit for 628 days in custody.
Abel, who has had several run-ins with the police, was among nearly two dozen defendants whose drug charges were dismissed in 2013 in the wake of a scandal involving undercover Schaumburg police officers.
Information from a confidential informant led to the arrest of Abel and his girlfriend, Nicole Morris, in November 2015 on charges of armed violence, possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver.
Police recovered a 9 mm firearm loaded with a 30-round magazine from the couple's bedroom, where their infant also slept, prosecutors said. Members of the Illinois State Police narcotics task force also recovered cocaine and marijuana with a combined street value of more than $69,000; a 50-round magazine, $13,000 in cash and an agent used to cut cocaine, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, the agent was found in a kitchen cabinet in a Similac baby formula container labeled "do not feed to baby."
In 2009, Abel pleaded guilty to stealing $1,500 and some marijuana from an Arlington Heights man. He was sentenced to boot camp and was on parole three years later when he was arrested on drug charges by former Schaumburg undercover police officers John Cichy, Matthew Hudak and Terrance O'Brien. The trio were charged in DuPage County with criminal drug conspiracy, delivery of a controlled substance, armed violence, theft and official misconduct. Hudak and O'Brien pleaded guilty to multiple charges in 2014 and were sentenced to 26 and 38 years respectively. Cichy's trial is pending.
Abel was also charged with aggravated battery and a hate crime in February 2014. It was unclear whether those charges are still pending.
Morris, 23, pleaded guilty in November to possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. She's scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in Rolling Meadows.