Joliet, Wilmington men plead guilty, are sentenced to 8 years for burglary

A Joliet man and a Wilmington man were sentenced to prison for burglarizing businesses and stealing cash from video poker machines, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced on Friday.

Gino Wuttke, 33, of Joliet, pleaded guilty to one count each of Class 1 Felony Theft and Class 2 Felony Burglary. Wuttke then was sentenced to eight years in prison in Lee County Circuit Court.

Co-defendant Brian Morgan, 42, of Plainfield was sentenced to eight years in prison in April for his role in the burglary ring.

Lucas Bailey, 41, of Wilmington pleaded guilty to one count of Class 2 Felony Burglary.

“This case is the result of countless hours of collaboration between my office and several law enforcement agencies.”

—  Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul

Bailey, who currently is in prison serving a separate sentence in connection to unrelated charges, was then sentenced to three years in prison in Lake County Circuit Court.

The Illinois Attorney General’s office filed charges in August 2022 against a total of six people, which included Wuttke and Bailey. The charges alleged that they stole about $400,000 after breaking into businesses around Illinois and robbing video gaming machines.

The plea is part of an ongoing burglary case Raoul announced in 2022. It follows a joint investigation with the Illinois Gaming Board, the Illinois State Police and several local law enforcement agencies.

“Members of this burglary ring allegedly targeted bars, restaurants, social clubs and other small businesses that have video poker and video gaming machines,” Raoul said in the news release. “They broke into dozens of these establishments in multiple counties and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash out of the machines. This case is the result of countless hours of collaboration between my office and several law enforcement agencies. I would like to thank these agencies for their hard work investigating this burglary ring and assisting in holding the members responsible accountable.”

Illinois statute authorizes Raoul’s Statewide Grand Jury Bureau to prosecute multicounty cases involving drugs, money laundering, guns or electronics.

Raoul’s Statewide Grand Jury Bureau works regularly with state and federal counterparts, focusing on “complex, often large-scale, organized criminal activity,” Raoul said.

Deputy Bureau Chief Andrew Whitfield prosecuted the cases for Raoul’s Statewide Grand Jury Bureau.