Man guilty of stealing fish from Cary trout farm

Here's one fish story you'll probably never hear Sebastian Sobieski bragging about.

On Thursday, a McHenry County jury convicted the 25-year-old Bannockburn man on a misdemeanor theft charge alleging he stole nine rainbow trout from a Cary-area fish farm.

Sobieski, who served as his own attorney during a two-day trial that ended Thursday morning, later was sentenced to one year of court supervision and ordered to pay a $150 fine along with $56.50 to the owner of the fish, Dorothy Miller.

He declined to comment on the verdict as he left court.

The charge stemmed from what court documents paint as a fish sale gone bad.

According to Sobieski, he was looking to add fish to a pond on his property last year when struck a deal with Miller to purchase trout from her business, the Lake Julian Trout Farm. He went to the business July 18 to pick up the fish, documents state.

From there the two sides' version of events diverge. Authorities say Sobieski picked up the fish, never paid the agreed upon price.

"It's simple," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Amanda Fisher told jurors Thursday. "He took something that didn't belong to him and didn't pay for it."

Sobieski claimed otherwise, telling jurors he paid the agreed upon price for the fish, but balked when Miller tried to add a "labor charge" for her son's work to pull the trout out of the water and bring them to his vehicle.

Jurors deliberated about two hours before returning the guilty verdict.