Sun City burglar suspect convicted

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Aug. 25, 1999 | 10:27 a.m.

Although Anthony Wright faced 35 felony counts alleging he was the "Sun City burglar" who broke into perhaps 100 homes over an 18-month period, a District Court jury convicted him of only six counts on Tuesday.

None of the convictions involved break-ins of homes in the senior citizen community at Summerlin -- only that he possessed stolen property.

But he does appear to have been linked to thefts in the retirement community. He was caught in Sun City after police targeting the serial break-in artist were alerted by a burglar alarm. When police searched his house they found stolen property from several of the Sun City break-ins. And the rash of similarly executed thefts in the area ceased with Wright's apprehension.

But six convictions may be enough to keep him behind bars since prosecutors are seeking to have Wright declared a habitual criminal and sent to prison for life. Actually one felony conviction was all that was needed to warrant the move.

Wright already has half a dozen convictions in California for theft-related crimes, and testimony presented by Deputy District Attorney Bill Koot showed the defendant lived a lavish life without the benefit of a job.

Defense attorney Alzora Jackson argued to the jury in District Judge John McGroarty's courtroom that Wright could just as easily have been a fence who sells stolen property rather than the burglar.

She also presented witnesses who testified that Wright was elsewhere during certain burglaries.

Jackson said the evidence presented was simply insufficient to justify a conviction.

Koot countered that fences don't accompany burglars to the scene of the crime and Wright showed his involvement by fleeing from police who had targeted the burglar who peeled off screens and pried open windows.

"This was a business, this was a professional," Koot said. "He knew there were elderly people who had accumulated jewelry for years and years and years. He made his living off the accumulated work of others."

But the jury held Wright accountable only for some of the stolen property he had kept.

While Wright was convicted of six felonies and two misdemeanor stolen property counts, he was acquitted of only one charge. The jury was deadlocked on the remaining counts and prosecutors could decide today whether to retry the defendant.

As the burglary spree, which began in October 1997, continued unabated, Metro Police observed a pattern of thefts three or four nights in a row and then a break as the burglar apparently enjoyed the fruits of his crimes.

But while detectives plotted his expected movements, they were never able to capture him.

But after the first strike in a new series of burglaries, Metro flooded the area with officers and K-9 units and had a helicopter cruising overhead. When officers heard a burglar alarm on a March night, they converged on the area and a police dog sniffed out Wright's location, only to be pummeled by the suspect who then fled on foot.

He was tracked to a hiding place under a bush, and it took six officers to subdue and arrest the muscular man.

Koot said that while the defendant went by the name of Anthony Wright while living in Las Vegas, he was known as Jerry Blackwell in California.