DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett announced today that Phillip Yanke, 24 (d.o.b. 12/15/79), of 652 Leslie Court in Carol Stream was re-sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison for a violation of his felony probation in a 2001 Burglary.  The violation stemmed from a 2002 Aggravated Battery   that Yanke committed while on that felony probation, which involved the death of Richard Nichols of Hanover Park.  As a result, a petition to revoke Yanke’s probation was filed by prosecutors.  The petition was not heard until today.

In the Burglary case, Yanke pleaded guilty to breaking into as many as three (3) Carol Stream residential garages in March of 2001.  He was sentenced to two (2) years probation, 180 days of Periodic Imprisonment, completion of the Young Adult Work Camp and was ordered to pay restitution of nearly $500 to the three individual homeowners.

However, on June 30, 2002, a violent altercation ensued between an intoxicated 31 year old man, Richard Nichols, Yanke and two men who were friends of Yanke’s.  According to the evidence, Nichols verbally provoked Yanke and the other two men who had been outside a Hanover Park fast-food restaurant that evening. The police were called and Yanke and his two companions were taken into custody while Nichols, who was unconscious and bleeding, was transported to Central DuPage Hospital.  Nichols remained in the hospital until August 9, 2002 when he died as a result of the injuries inflicted by these men. 

Yanke, along with his two co-defendants, pleaded guilty to Aggravated Battery on November 12, 2003 in connection with the beating death of Richard Nichols.  He was sentenced to four (4) years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.  In exchange for that plea and penitentiary sentence, charges of First Degree Murder were dismissed against all three of the defendants.  The three were also ordered to pay $10,305 in restitution to the victim’s family.

While the case involving Nichols was proceeding in court, the petition to revoke probation in the Burglary case was put on hold.  Following Yanke’s November guilty plea and sentencing for that Aggravated Battery, a date for a hearing was set for the Burglary case.  Today, Judge Robert Anderson revoked Yanke’s probation in the Burglary case and ordered him to serve 6 ½ years in prison.  During today’s sentencing hearing, Judge Anderson commented that Yanke accepted no responsibility of any kind for his actions and that the court found no mitigating factors.  According to Judge Anderson, Yanke exhibited a lack of rehabilitative potential, and as a result, the judge sentenced him to 6 ½ years in prison, just six months shy of the maximum term he was eligible to serve.