CLEARFIELD – Two people charged with breaking into a DuBois home and taking more than $68,000 worth of items pleaded guilty Monday in Clearfield County Court.
Travis Roy Gonzales, 32, formerly of DuBois, and currently an inmate of state prison, pleaded guilty to burglary and access device fraud. He was sentenced by Judge Fredric J. Ammerman to 29 months to five years in state prison.
Rikki Lee Stephens, 22, currently an inmate of the county jail, pleaded guilty to burglary and theft by unlawful taking. She was sentenced to seven months to 14 months in the county jail and two years consecutive probation.
Each of them was ordered to pay almost $8,900 in restitution.
Prior to sentencing, Gonzales’s attorney, Joshua Maines, noted that the restitution was split three ways among Gonzales, Stephens and Torry David Gonzales, 33, who is also charged with this crime.
Recently charges have been filed against a fourth person, Savannah Johnston, 19, DuBois, who is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Jan. 13.
He asked that the restitution be re-calculated to include Johnston should her charges move forward. Ammerman noted that Maines can file a motion to adjust the restitution amounts later.
Before she was sentenced, Stephens apologized for her “actions” and explained she has had a lot of time to think while in jail for the last four months. She now wants to change her life. Ammerman warned her to stay away from drugs and straighten up.
Charges against Torry Gonzales, 34, were moved into the Court of Common Pleas after he waived his preliminary hearing in September.
The trio is accused of breaking into a DuBois home sometime between June 28 and June 29 and removing more than $68,000 worth of property. This crime led police to a Spring Avenue residence where they apprehended Torry Gonzales.
When police knocked on the door of the residence, it was shut in an officer’s face, according to reports. Because it was believed other suspects were inside, police evacuated the area and waited for a search warrant. When police entered the home, it was discovered to be empty.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, an officer spotted Gonzales outside the Spring Avenue home on June 30. Because he was wanted on a warrant in addition to being a suspect for the burglary, he was approached.
Gonzales was bending half his body inside a vehicle to avoid the officer. The officer requested he show his hands, but he did not comply and kept bending over the back seat of the vehicle. He was then placed under arrest.
When the vehicle was searched, officers said they found a sawed off shotgun of the same type stolen in the burglary, where Gonzales had been reaching. In the front seat, they found a backpack with items missing from the burglarized home.
Additional items including two safes were recovered from the DuBois Manor Motel in a room rented by Gonzales, police said. A search warrant served on luggage owned by Travis Gonzales uncovered more items taken in the crime.
In an interview with police, Stephens admitted to being in the motel room where she had seen the stolen items.
Johnston told police Stephens and Travis Gonzales borrowed her vehicle the night of the burglary. They returned to the Spring Avenue home with a box of items. When she asked where the items came from, Stephens told her they went into a house. Travis and Torry Gonzales left again and returned with food, jewelry and two guns wrapped in a towel, Johnston said.
According to Johnston’s affidavit, after her original interview with police, she admitted to having stolen property in her vehicle. She also said Torry Gonzalez had the gun with him and transported it to her storage unit.
Among the things stolen were the victim’s credit cards. Police were able to review security footage of the transactions on the cards on June 30. In one of these, officers saw Torry and Travis Gonzales purchasing items at Martin’s Grocery Store and in other footage Travis Gonzales and Stephens using the card at the Dollar General Store in Brookville.
In a separate case, Travis Gonzales pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance. For this, he was given one year concurrent probation.
Stephens pleaded guilty in two additional cases. In the first case, she was sentenced to 30 days to one year in jail for possession of a controlled substance and in the second, she received the same sentence for theft by unlawful taking. These sentences will run concurrent with her burglary sentence.