Man gets 10 years for drugs, home invasion

A local drug dealer who broke into the home of a Carbondale man and helped beat him with a bat earlier this year has been sentenced to a decade in prison.

Jackson County State's Attorney Mike Carr says Zachary O. Rennison, 29, of Carbondale entered guilty pleas Tuesday to charges of home invasion and delivery of a substance containing methamphetamine.

Rennison received a sentence of 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections followed by a three-year period of probation on the home invasion charge. He received four years in IDOC followed by a two-year period of probation on the drug charge. The sentences will run concurrently.

According to Carr, agents with the Southern Illinois Enforcement Group opened an investigation earlier this year into Rennison and his associates' activities selling meth. Between Feb. 3 and June 2, Rennison sold just over 4 grams of meth to confidential sources. Agents executed a search warrant and recovered amounts of meth and heroin.

On March 20, Rennison and three others made forced entry into the home of a Carbondale man. While inside, Rennison and his accomplices struck the homeowner with a bat and forcibly restrained the homeowner. Rennison and his accomplices then stole property and fled.