People v. Mata

Following a bench trial, defendant, Frank C. Mata (Mata), was found guilty of residential burglary. The trial court sentenced the defendant to a four-year term in the Illinois Department of Corrections which was to run consecutively with four- and seven-year concurrent sentences earlier imposed in an unrelated case.

The issues presented on appeal are: (1) whether it was error for the trial court to have found the defendant guilty of residential burglary beyond a reasonable doubt because the attached garage was not a “dwelling place”; (2) whether the defendant was not accountable because he was…