Darien Home Invasion Suspect Gets 31 Years In Prison

DARIEN, IL – A man who took part in the invasion of a Darien house was sentenced to 31 years in prison, prosecutors announced Friday.

Joseph Covington, 28, formerly of Chicago, has been held in the DuPage County jail since he was arrested in December 2022, according to a news release from the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office. In April, he pleaded guilty to one count of felony home invasion.

The invasion occurred in the 1100 block of Belair Drive.

About 9 a.m. Nov. 26, 2019, a woman in her early 20s, who was home from college, heard a knock at the front door, police said.

She looked out her bedroom window into the backyard and saw a person wearing an orange utility vest and a black ski mask, according to the release.

When she turned around in her bedroom, she was confronted by another person wearing dark clothing and a black ski mask, pointing a black and silver handgun at her, prosecutors said.

The man forced her downstairs at gunpoint, where she was confronted by three other mask-wearing men. The men, one of them later identified as Covington, demanded to know where the money in the home was.

After repeated phone calls by the woman's mother went unanswered, the masked men ordered the victim to answer the call and tell her everything was fine, prosecutors said.

After the conversation, the mother contacted a neighbor, who went to the house. The victim opened the door at the instruction of the invaders, prosecutors said.

The neighbor then pulled the woman out of the house and called 911.

With a K-9 unit, officers tracked the intruders' path through backyards. They found a .40-caliber black and silver handgun loaded with 13 rounds along a fence line in a neighbor's yard, according to the news release. Along the way, they also discovered various articles of clothing, which served as evidence.

The officers found Covington in a nearby Taco Bell parking lot, prosecutors said. He matched a description of one of the intruders.

"I cannot begin to imagine the unspeakable terror the victim, who was home alone from college at the time, must have felt when she saw a masked man in her backyard and then was confronted by another armed, masked man in her bedroom," DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said in the news release. "Our homes are our sanctuaries, and we all deserve to feel safe and secure at home. Mr. Covington not only stole the comfort and protection a home provides from his victim and her family, but also left an entire community on edge, concerned about their own wellbeing."

The news release did not address the status of the investigation related to the other suspects.