Inmate set to admit burglary

A state prison inmate with a lengthy criminal history is set to plead guilty April 8 for burglarizing an Indian Hills residence.

Tommy Dean Bridges, 32, is accused of burglarizing the home March 3, 2006, and stealing more than $2,500 in property.

Investigators found DNA at the scene and submitted it for testing and a search, which turned up Bridges’ name more than a year later.

Bridges, who was an inmate at High Desert Correctional Center after being convicted of burglary, was ordered to produce a DNA sample.

Kris Brown was appointed to represent Bridges.

In exchange for his guilty plea, the state agreed to dismiss a grand larceny charge and not to seek habitual-criminal status.

CARSON MAN GUILTY IN THEFT

A 19-year-old Carson City man, who said he stole a laptop computer from Walmart to pay a debt, pleaded guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor theft.

Christopher A. Wilson was sentenced to a 90-day suspended sentence in Douglas County Jail and ordered to serve 15 days.

“I was going up to the Walmart to buy some food,” Wilson told East Fork Judge Tom Perkins. “I was walking by the electronics and grabbed one of the laptops.”

Prosecutor Laurie Trotter said Wilson could have been charged with felony drug possession. After he was arrested, jail deputies reportedly recovered a plastic straw and black residue.

“The defendant indicated he was a heroin addict,” Trotter said.

She asked that he be ordered to serve 15 days.

Wilson’s attorney, Derrick Lopez, asked that he be released because he was about to become a father.

“He has a reason to want to put his life together. His impending fatherhood is any day now. We want him out and working,” Lopez said.

Wilson said incarceration had been “really nerve-wracking.”

“Being in jail really opened my eyes. It was a very scary experience,” Wilson said.

Perkins said if Wilson doesn’t remain sober, he will know the defendant chose heroin over his family.

“If I ever see you again, I will throw you in jail for a long time,” Perkins said.

MARIJUANA PLANT SENTENCING SET

Two teenagers who admitted stealing seven marijuana plants and a grow light are set for sentencing April 10.

Jackson Crawford and Anthony Ward, both 18, entered pleas Wednesday in East Fork Justice Court to theft and possession of drug paraphernalia, both misdemeanors.

Both pleaded guilty to the possession charge; Crawford pleaded guilty to theft, and Ward pleaded no contest to that charge.

In exchange for their guilty pleas, other charges in connection with the Dec. 2 incident were dismissed.

According to reports, Crawford and Ward were arrested after their vehicle was spotted in the parking lot of Saratoga Springs Park just before 1 a.m. Deputies said there were no plates on the car.

Officers said they could smell marijuana as they approached the vehicle, and one of the defendants admitted “there was a lot of marijuana” in the trunk.

Deputies recovered the plants and lights with a total value of $1,200.

The items were reported stolen from a Johnson Lane residence of a man who had a medical marijuana card, according to reports.

Both sides agreed to recommend concurrent 90-day sentences on each charge, suspended for one year. The defendants will be under supervision of the Department of Alternative Sentencing, must abstain from drugs and alcohol, and may not have contact with the victim. They are each to be fined $302.

Restitution will be determined after a hearing.