Two get prison, two probation in burglaries

Two Carson City men were sentenced to prison, and their co-defendants received probation, for two residential burglaries in December.

Samuel Contreras, 51, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of stolen property. Judge Jim Wilson sentenced Contreras to 19 to 48 months in prison for the burglary of a home on Minnesota Street and an additional 19 to 48 months in prison for a burglary on Gay Circle.

Contreras must be paroled or serve the first sentence before beginning the second.

Robert Wayne Pogue, 46, received 19 to 48 months in prison on a charge felony possession of stolen property.

Jeanne Marie O'Daye, who married Contreras last week, was sentenced to 12 to 32 months in prison suspended with probation not to exceed five years.

Terry Lee Kneese, 48, received a sentence of 19 to 48 months in prison suspended with probation not to exceed five years.

In a victim statement, Minnesota Street homeowner Dr. Michele Chase, whose home was burglarized days after her husband died on Thanksgiving morning, said the burglars took not only items of value, but hundreds of possessions that reached back three generations.

"I have never been more traumatized. Not even by my husband's death," said Chase. "These people are brain damaged."

Lisa Hersey, a Genoa antiques dealer and Chase family friend, discovered the Chase home had been burglarized in late November while the family was in Alaska. She said the suspects took keys to the doors and garage and returned at least two other times to help themselves to what remained.

A few weeks later Kneese, 48, entered Hersey's Genoa shop and sold her several stolen items, including an antique clock and toy train, taken in the Chase burglary, said Detective Daniel Gonzales.

She arranged with Kneese to buy more stolen items and then called police. After the second sale, officers moved in arrested him, said Gonzales.

According to the arrest report, Kneese told officers that he'd received the stolen items from Contreras and that he'd helped Contreras burglarize the Minnesota Street home and another on Gay Circle on Dec. 6.

When officers went to Contreras' home on Fourth Street they found what Gonzales described in court as "hundreds" of stolen items.

Contreras' attorney Ben Walker said his client was in a fog from methamphetamine use.

"There's no denying that when people use methamphetamine, they do things that they wouldn't do when they're sober," said Walker. "Sam recognizes that methamphetamine was his downfall."

Walker said 16 people offered letters of support for Contreras, who Walker claimed was a certified substitute teacher. Contreras also owns A to Z Landscaping and used to coach intramural sports here.

But Wilson was not swayed by pleas for leniency.

"You went into somebody else's home," the judge said. "It's difficult to imagine a more invasive crime than going into somebody's home."

Wilson told Contreras his attorney had done his best on a difficult case.

"But like in a medical case, there are just some people who are dead, and there's nothing you can do to help them," he said. "You deserve to go to prison for what you did."