Serial burglar goes to prison for five years
A Kalispell man convicted of committing two separate strings of daylight break-ins to homes in the Foy's Lake area has been sentenced to five years at Montana State Prison.
Roger Alfredo Vargas, 22, who will not be eligible for parole, will spend 15 years following his release on probation.
At a hearing Thursday, Flathead District Judge Ted Lympus also ordered Vargas to pay more than $5,800 in restitution.
Vargas pleaded guilty in January to two counts of burglary and one count of felony theft. Pursuant to a plea agreement, 16 other felony charges, including 14 for burglary, were dropped.
He briefly addressed the court Thursday, apologizing to his victims.
Vargas was arrested in late October 2008 after a Foy's Lake Road resident woke up to find a man burglarizing his home. Responding Flathead County Sheriff's deputies came across a man fitting the suspect's description fleeing from another home nearby and arrested Vargas on Lone Pine Road after a short foot pursuit.
Investigators say that between Oct. 8 and Oct. 29, Vargas broke into homes on Foy's Lake Road, Lone Pine Road, Terrace Road, Segiah Way, Scovel Lane, Orchard Ridge Road, Lower Valley Road, Willow Glen Drive, Shelter Valley Drive and Hartt Hill Drive.
A search of Vargas' home revealed stolen computers, video game systems, coins and firearms.
Before he was arrested, Vargas had been free on house arrest pending trial on previously filed burglary and theft charges.
Between November 2007 and mid-January 2008, according to investigators, Vargas (who had an accomplice during some of the break-ins' burglarized homes on Shelter Valley Drive, Foy's Lake Road, Foy's Canyon Road, Two Mile Drive and Airport Road.
Items reported stolen included cameras, a TV, a rifle with a scope, an iPod, knives, jewelry, a coin collection, prescription medication, a computer and a snowboard.
Assault-with-a-weapon charges, filed after Vargas allegedly pointed a gun at two women in November 2007, and drug charges, filed after investigators also found nine marijuana plants during a search of Vargas' house, were dismissed.
Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com