Man gets probation for thefts

A Kalispell man implicated in a string of petty thefts and break-ins stretching back to November 2007 has been sentenced to probation and ordered to pay restitution.

David William Rodriguez, 19, was ordered to serve a six-year deferred sentence Thursday afternoon during a hearing in Flathead County District Court.

Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty in January to burglary (a common scheme), and his co-defendants also must pay more than $41,000 in restitution to the victims of the thefts.

Deputy County Attorney Katie Schulz told Judge Stewart E. Stadler on Thursday that a deferred sentence - which had been agreed upon in a plea bargain - gave Rodriguez the chance to prove his behavior was an aberration.

In December 2007, Rodriguez and two other men pried open a door at the Eastside Brick building in the 700 block of Fifth Avenue East and made off with snowboards and computer equipment from at least two offices.

Rodriguez also has admitted to the November 2007 theft of a laptop computer from a car on Juniper Bend Drive and a pair of March 2008 break-ins to the Best Bet Casino on U.S. 93 South.

According to court records, Rodriguez and two other men used a large rock to twice break through the casino's glass door and steal alcohol.

At least six other men have been implicated in the string of petty thefts, vandalism and burglaries.

Cody Alan Dow, 18, and Joshua Charles Kelly, 19, have been charged with burglary in connection with the Eastside Brick break-in. Curtis Lee Bowers, 21, is charged with the burglary of a Whitefish convenience store and the break-in to a Kalispell thrift shop.

But 20-year-old Timothy Christopher Beck, who appears to be at the center of the rash of thefts and burglaries, was sentenced in January to 15 years at the Montana Department of Corrections with 10 years suspended.

Beck had pleaded guilty to felony theft and felony criminal mischief for stealing a Toyota Tundra pickup truck in late July 2007 in Kalispell and then trashing it while mudbogging in a field off KM Ranch Road.

Two other men were arrested and charged in connection with that incident.

Beck also admitted to burglarizing the Whitefish convenience store and the break-in to the Kalispell thrift shop, the two Best Bet Casino burglaries and the November 2007 theft from a vehicle with Rodriguez, along with several other thefts and burglaries across the Flathead Valley.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com