Riverton man sentenced for 2022 burglary of EJ Karz Bar & Grill in Verona

Jonathan Ballard, 35, Riverton, a man already in the Sangamon County Jail for burglary, has been sentenced in Grundy County for an Oct. 2022 break-in at EJ Karz Bar & Grill, 4275 W. Grand Ridge Road, Verona.

A crime lab notified the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office in April 2023 that evidence from the scene had a consistent DNA profile match with Ballard. Ballard was already in custody at the Sangamon County Jail for similar burglaries in both Sangamon County and Menard County in 2022. Investigators placed Ballard at EJ Karz the morning of the burglary using cell phone data obtained through search warrants.

Ballard was sentenced to six years in the Illinois Department of Corrections with credit for time served, which means the sentence will run concurrent with his seven year sentence in Sangamon County. He had served a six-year prison sentence in 2016 for residential burglary.