DNA links imprisoned Easter burglar to 2nd McHenry Co. church break-in
A former Lake in the Hills man in prison for ransacking a church on Easter morning has been tied through DNA testing to another 2007 break-in at a place of worship.
McHenry County authorities Monday charged Erick N. Johnson, 36, with felony criminal damage to property, alleging he broke a window at a Crystal Lake church and damaged its alarm box in an apparent attempt to disable it.
Johnson, serving a nine-year term in the Dixon Correctional Center, could be sentenced to another five years if found guilty of the new charge.
The allegations stem from a March 19, 2007, break-in at the Crystal Lake Church of Christ that caused around $1,500 in damage.
The would-be burglar fled the church empty-handed before police arrived, but left behind blood from a cut suffered while breaking a window to get inside the building, McHenry County Sheriff's Lt. Donald Carlson said.
The blood evidence turned up no suspects immediately, but when Johnson was sentenced to the Illinois Department of Corrections in September for the Easter-morning burglary of a Union-area church, he was required to give samples for DNA testing.
When he did, it led to a match from the blood left behind at the church, Carlson said.
Investigators are also trying to determine if Johnson was behind another church burglary in Crystal Lake that occurred within an hour of the Crystal Lake Church of Christ break-in. There was no DNA evidence left behind at that scene, however.
"Certainly we can make that connection in our minds, but being able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt at this point is not likely to happen," Carlson said.
Johnson received the nine-year prison term after pleading guilty to a burglary charge alleging he forced his way into St. John's Lutheran Church in Union just hours before its members were scheduled to celebrate Easter services.
Once inside the church, authorities said, Johnson stole two computers, a 32-inch television and sound system components, and shattered about 100 drinking glasses, damaged tables and broke eggs that were there for a planned Easter breakfast.
Johnson was on parole from an earlier department of corrections stay at the time and in all has been sent to prison five times for burglary and other property crimes.