Fox River island burglar pleads guilty

A St. Charles burglar who made a hideout out of an island in the middle of the Fox River faces up to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty Thursday.

Casey P. Fecteau, 19, of the 1200 block of Ronzheimer Avenue, admitted to one count of residential burglary, a Class 1 felony, at a hearing in front of Kane County Circuit Judge Timothy Q. Sheldon.

Fecteau was one of two men arrested in May after police tracked them to an island not far from a pair of burglarized St. Charles Township homes.

Authorities said it appeared Fecteau and his co-defendant, 19-year-old Kenneth P. White of St. Charles, had been wading through the Fox River to hide out on an island 50 to 100 feet offshore. Police said the island contained a makeshift campsite, where they found a teepee, fishing poles and beer cans.

Fecteau admitted Thursday he burglarized a home on Riverside Avenue in St. Charles Township's Valley View neighborhood on May 6, and that he possessed property reported stolen from another burglary in the same area.

It was the second time in less than a year Fecteau pleaded guilty to burglary. In March, he was sentenced to 24 months probation for stealing a small safe from Mades-Johnstone Center School in St. Charles.

In that case, Fecteau was arrested when police found the safe in his backyard, about a block away from the school.

Sheldon said Fecteau faces up to 14 years in prison for his latest offense when sentenced Aug. 18, and he could be resentenced to prison for violating his probation in the earlier case.

White, who broke his arm while being chased from the Riverside Avenue burglary, pleaded guilty earlier this month in exchange for a four-year prison sentence.