Maple teen faces jail, probation in string of thefts

A Maple teen will spend 120 days in jail and five years on probation for his involvement in a string of Douglas County burglaries last spring.

Brian Mathias Lind, 17, pleaded no contest in Douglas County Circuit Court on Feb. 1 to one county felony burglary, one count felony theft and one count misdemeanor theft, all as a party to a crime.

He was sentenced to five years of probation for the felony charges. He also was ordered to undergo a chemical dependency and psychological evaluations, maintain absolute sobriety, have no contact with the victims, pay $290 restitution and $536 in fines and court costs. On the misdemeanor theft charge, he was sentenced to 120 days in jail with Huber release for school or work. Six counts of theft, seven counts of burglary and one count of burglary-arm self with a dangerous weapon, all as a party to a crime, were dismissed but read in for sentencing.

In a separate case, Lind pleaded no contest to one count of possession of drug paraphernalia and was sentenced to 10 days in jail, concurrent. One count of misdemeanor bail jumping was dismissed.

Lind is one of four teens accused of stealing gas, change and more in a rash of thefts in the towns of Oakland, Superior, Lakeside, Amnicon, Summit, Parkland and the village of Poplar in April and May. The majority of the thefts were from garages, utility buildings, sheds and vehicles. Two other teens still face charges for the incidents, Nathan Edward Birkholz, 18, of South Range and Anthony Devere Seaberg, 18, of Superior. The fourth teen, 18-year-old Jesse James Budreau, pleaded to two counts of theft and one count of burglary in December. He was sentenced to six months in jail and four years on probation

According to the criminal complaints:

When questioned, the teens admitted to breaking into garages and cars searching mainly for gas and change. Birkholz told Douglas County Sheriff’s Detective Brad Hoyt they would take cans of gas, fill their tanks and then toss the can. Seaberg said the teens targeted places at random and never broke into a locked place. He said if people did not close their garage door, they were asking to be broken into.

Tags: crime and courts, douglas county, news