A Silver Springs man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading to a 2021 Lawtey burglary.
John Francis Thomas, 59, pleaded to burglary, grand theft, and criminal mischief with property damage.
According to a sworn complaint, on December 21, 2021, a couple arrived at their home north of Lawtey from a doctor’s appointment to discover their back glass door shattered.
Deputies wrote in the complaint that the house appeared to have been plundered and that the intruder’s focus appeared to be on the residence’s master bedroom.
The victims reported $2,350 worth of jewelry missing from the home, in addition to over $1,000 in property damage incurred during the break-in.
A neighbor provided law enforcement with security camera footage showing two men arriving at the victim’s property in a black Chevrolet HHR. The video revealed the station wagon backing up to the residence’s front door and a thin man wearing a green or yellow shirt exiting the home with an item that he put in the back of the vehicle. A heavyset man was seen driving the Chevrolet.
Deputies discovered blood in the vicinity of the broken back glass door, which they submitted to an FDLE crime lab for analysis. DNA in the blood matched that of the defendant.
A separate report from FDLE indicated that Thomas’s blood was also discovered at the site of a burglary in Hernando County. The perpetrators of the Hernando County break-in used methods similar to those of the offenders of the Lawtey burglary.
Investigators also found that the defendant’s brother, James, was the registered owner of a black Chevrolet HHR and that John had been accused of driving the vehicle during a similar burglary in Lake County.
