Chicago — A nine-time convicted felon burglarized a Rogers Park home while he was on bail for burglarizing a home in Bucktown, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Michael Edwards, 42, was charged in June with burglarizing a home in the 1700 block of North Winchester on Valentine’s Day 2020. Prosecutors said the victim returned home and found their front door broken, their computer missing, and a glove on the floor.
Chicago police collected the glove, and tests of DNA material allegedly linked it to Edwards.
When police arrested Edwards on June 1, he allegedly told them that he could not possibly be the burglar because he stopped committing burglaries around that time because he was on drugs. But after being confronted with the DNA evidence, he acknowledged that he did commit burglaries with two White guys named Jason and Chris, prosecutors allege.
Judge Charles Beach allowed Edwards to go home by posting a $2,500 deposit bond.
While out on bail, prosecutors said Wednesday, Edwards burglarized a Rogers Park couple’s home on September 23.
The victims were awakened around 2:40 a.m. by a burglar alarm in their home in the 1200 block of West Columbia. They went downstairs and found a front window open, items out of place, a wallet missing, and a small bat and a pry tool on the porch, prosecutors said.
Surveillance video allegedly showed the burglar moving toward the home’s front window, forcing open the front door, and jumping the home’s back fence. Chicago police officers identified Edwards as the offender by searching a database of known burglars, prosecutors said.
Edwards’ felony convictions include a 2019 theft, four burglaries in 2014, identity theft in 2013, residential burglaries in 2007 and 2002, burglary and two residential burglaries in 2000, and robbery in 1999.
His attorney said he has been working at a tattoo shop in Gurnee while working on his associate’s degree.
Judge Kelly McCarthy ordered Edwards to pay a $15,000 bail deposit to be released on electronic monitoring while the Rogers Park case is pending. Separately, she held him without bail for violating the conditions of his bond in the Bucktown burglary case.
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