Elgin man sentenced to five years in prison for Huntley burglary

A 32-year-old Elgin man has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to a Huntley burglary, court records show.

Damian A. Franco faced two felony burglary charges in addition to obstructing justice, aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, criminal trespass to property and a vehicle, and possessing less than 15 grams of a substance containing methamphetamine.

In exchange for his guilty plea to one of the felony burglary charges, prosecutors dropped the other charges. The Class 2 felony carried a possible sentence of three to seven years in prison.

Judge Michael Coppedge sentenced Franco to five years in prison, of which he will need to serve at least 50%, according to the sentencing order. He also will receive credit for the 380 days he’s spent in custody. He was also sentenced to a year of mandatory supervised release.

Franco was arrested after Huntley police officers responded on Feb. 27, 2021, to the Walmart at 12300 S. Route 47 in Huntley for a retail theft, according to the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office. Police officers attempted to pull over a vehicle that matched the description of the one involved in the retail theft.

The vehicle never came to a complete stop when both the driver and passenger – identified by the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office as Franco – jumped from the car and fled on foot, according to the release.

The vehicle had been reported stolen out of Elgin, according to the Huntley Police Department in a release at the time of the arrests.

Franco was accused of entering a garage in the 11200 block of Grove Street with the intent of concealing himself from police and committing a theft, according to the indictment. He was attempting to hot wire a car in the garage, the state’s attorney’s office said in the release.

Another man – Luis M. Arreola, 36, also of Elgin – was arrested about 20 minutes later after Huntley police continued to search with help from the Lake in the Hills Police Department and a K-9 unit from the Kane County Sheriff’s Office, the Huntley Police Department said at the time.

Arreola was arrested after a Huntley resident reported seeing a person take a bicycle from a residence in the area of Timer Drive, the department said. That person “closely resembled” the description of the man being sought.

Arreola pleaded guilty to aggravated fleeing in July as part of a plea deal and was sentenced to a year in prison, to be served at 50%, court records show. He received credit for the 95 days he had spent in custody. Additional charges of reckless driving and theft of the bicycle, both misdemeanors, were dismissed as part of the negotiated plea.

He currently is on parole through an interstate compact, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. His parole will be complete in October.

Officers recovered all the items stolen from Walmart, according to the state’s attorney’s office.

An attempt Monday to reach the McHenry County Public Defender’s Office, which represented Franco, was unsuccessful.