Author: Benny Greenspan | Wild About Trial
On the morning of Sunday, March 15, a Chicago mother named Yanicee Miles came home to her first floor apartment to a shocking surprise: three strangers in her home, two of them naked in her bed.
Miles immediately called the authorities and captured the trespassers on video lying naked in her home. Miles told Fox 32 Chicago that her apartment complex is normally abandoned, and therefore she was even more shocked to find these individuals in her complex, let alone in her own apartment. Miles additionally told Fox 32, “Two weeks before, I got a call when I was at work, and they told me that somebody kicked down my door,” making it even more odd that individuals were found sleeping there just a short time after.
The officers later arrived at the scene and immediately detained two of the three individuals, charging them for misdemeanor criminal trespassing. In Illinois, the statutory authority for criminal trespassing is 720 ILCS 5/21-3. Criminal trespassing is considered a Class B misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to 180 days in the County Jail with fines and cost of $1,500.00 or both.
Interestingly, in Illinois, vehicular trespassing carries with it a more severe punishment, as it is considered a Class A misdemeanor. Class A misdemeanors are punished by up to one year in County Jail with fines and cost of $2,500.00 or both.
If the trespassing occurred on “state supported land,” as opposed to private property, that would also be considered a Class A misdemeanor.
Given Miles’s comment about her door being priorly kicked down, a point the defense can make in their mitigation could be the vulnerability of the property, and whether it was secure enough to reasonably prevent unauthorized entry.
Thankfully, Miles has reportedly left her apartment since the incident, and hopes to move to a more safe, stable location with her children. It is unknown whether the children were present when the trespassers entered the home.
