Two of three men involved in a Christmas Eve burglary in Petersburg were sentenced to jail time Tuesday, August 23.
27-year-old Taylor Homer and 21-year-old Anthony Sainz both appeared in separate hearings before superior court judge William Carey at the Petersburg court house Tuesday. The men were accused of breaking into a warehouse at Hungerford Hill, south of downtown Petersburg, and stealing a pickup truck, tires, tools and nine guns on Christmas Eve of 2015.
In May of this year, a third man, 38-year-old Neil Ray Hacker, was sentenced to just under two years of jail time for his role in the burglary. Judge Carey Tuesday said he thought Hacker was the driving force in the crimes.
For his part, Homer received a jail sentence totaling one year. He had already entered guilty pleas on charges of theft and burglary in the second degree. Ten other charges against him were dismissed. The judge and attorneys in the case noted that Homer cooperated with police in the investigation.
In an unrelated case, Homer also pleaded guilty to a charge of driving under the influence stemming from a vehicle accident in early December. He was sentenced to an additional 30 days with all but 27 days suspended in that case. He’s on probation for one year and has to pay a 15-hundred dollar fine.
District attorney James Scott called the driving under the influence case more serious than the burglary because he thought Homer could have killed himself or someone else in the accident.
Meanwhile, Anthony Sainz was sentenced to one year in jail for his part in the burglary. All but 60 days of that sentence is suspended. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted burglary in the second degree and had the other 11 charges against him dismissed. He’s also on probation for one year following that conviction.
