Fingerprint on letter leads to burglary arrest
URBANA — A fingerprint found on a letter was used to link a Champaign man to a burglary last fall.
Jordan Johnson, 21, who listed addresses in the 1200 block of West Eureka Street and the 500 block of South Duncan Road, was charged Thursday with residential burglary for breaking into a home on Paula Drive in Champaign in late October.
A Champaign police report said the 48-year-old victim went out of town on Oct. 21 and when she returned Oct. 23, found her house broken into, and a credit card and her Social Security card missing. An unopened letter addressed to her brother had been ripped and thrown into the trash.
Police retrieved that letter, which had not previously been in the trash, and processed it for fingerprints. The state crime lab got a match to Johnson's fingerprint.
Johnson has been in custody at the Champaign County Jail since Dec. 18 on an unrelated aggravated battery and domestic battery case for which he is due back in court Tuesday.
If convicted of the residential burglary case, he faces a mandatory four to 15 years in prison.
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