A Mackinaw teenager who police say admitted to a rash of vehicle and garage burglaries in Morton last summer was sentenced this week to eight years in prison for his conviction in one of those cases.

A Mackinaw teenager who police say admitted to a rash of vehicle and garage burglaries in Morton last summer was sentenced this week to eight years in prison for his conviction in one of those cases.

Tazewell County Circuit Judge Stuart Borden, however, gave Joshua Kensil, 17, a chance to shorten that punishment to a half year in an intense military boot camp setting by recommending him for the state’s Impact Incarceration Program.

Kensil’s time of incarceration will be shortened to 180 days and he will serve a period of supervised release if he enters and successfully completes his IIP term. If he fails, he’ll serve his entire eight-year term.

Kensil, of 105 W. Third St., was sentenced Monday for participating with two other Mackinaw teens in the string of burglaries that alarmed Morton residents through July to mid-August.

Police recovered property from a dozen burglaries in the village with the arrests of Kensil and the two others and consider those cases closed, while the trio are also suspected in 10 more cases, Morton Deputy Police Chief Jason Miller said Tuesday.

Of those 22 cases, 16 were vehicle burglaries and six were considered residential burglaries of garages attached to homes, Miller said.

Kensil pleaded guilty to one count of residential burglary, while another burglary charge and one of possessing a stolen handgun were dismissed.

Christopher Lee, 18, faces trial Feb. 10 on the same original charges lodged against Kensil. Elijawon Hicks-Roots, 18, is charged with a misdemeanor count of vehicle burglary.

The three allegedly sought unlocked cars parked in unlocked garages and driveways. In the first days of August residents along Greenwood and Hazelwood streets in Morton reported several burglaries, one of which included the theft of a handgun from an unlocked vehicle.

Shortly after midnight Aug. 13, a Morton police officer spotted two men exit a vehicle on Maywood Street and begin peering into parked vehicles. She chased and caught Hicks-Roots, who reportedly identified Lee and Kensil as his accomplices.

The two were arrested a short time later. Police found the stolen handgun in a shed in Mackinaw.