Cook County Sheriff's police track down suspected burglar using DNA on wine bottle
RICH TOWNSHIP, Ill. (CBS) -- Cook County Sheriff's police detectives used DNA left behind on a wine bottle to help them locate a suspected burglar in the southern suburbs.
On Sept. 6 of last year, a house in the 4000 block of Blackstone Avenue in Rich Township was burglarized, police said. The house was ransacked, and the security system was damaged.
Sheriff's police detectives tracked down security camera footage from the house. It showed a man open the door to the house's detached garage, open the refrigerator in the garage, and take a swig from a bottle of 19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Cali Red blend wine before putting the bottle back in the refrigerator, the Sheriff's office said.
The man went on to spray-paint the cameras in the garage once he noticed them, the Sheriff's office said. He used paint that he found in the garage for this purpose, the Sheriff's office said.
The got back into the house a few days later through a sliding door and damaged security system equipment, the Sheriff's office said.
The Sheriff's Police Criminalistics Unit took DNA samples from the 19 Crimes wine bottle, and submitted them to the Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Laboratory. In February, they matched the DNA from the wine bottle with Jeremiah Phillips, 35.
Phillips, no known address, was arrested on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Cook County State's Attorney's office approved charges against Phillips of burglary, residential burglary, and criminal damage to property.
At an initial hearing at the Markham Courthouse, a judge ordered Phillips to be released from custody pending trial.