Trio Admit to Swindling Older Couple Out of $3,000

Three self-described gypsies accused of stealing $3,000 from an elderly Ventura couple in a tree-trimming scam last month pleaded guilty Wednesday to residential burglary--an admission that ensures yearlong sentences for each of them.

The trio--who have been described by police as members of a low-level organized crime ring operating nationwide--changed their pleas just moments before a preliminary hearing.

As the defendants huddled inside a Ventura County courtroom discussing their options, the two victims, 85-year-old Willard Merle, and his 87-year-old wife, Helen, waited in the hallway.

She sat in a wheelchair with a quilt in her lap and he waited at her side until the plea arrangement was announced. Prosecutors had intended to call the couple to testify about the thieves who slipped into their Madera Street home last month to steal $3,000.

Posing as city workers, the men said they needed to use the couple’s electricity for a tree-trimming project on a nearby property. They offered to reimburse the Merles $50 for using their outlets and gave the couple a $100 bill. After seeing where the couple kept their cash when they went for change, two of the burglars radioed to accomplices who slipped inside the house.

After the men left, the couple called the police, and four burglars were caught driving away in a rental car.

One of the four suspects, Mitch John of Tualatin, Ore., pleaded guilty to a single charge of burglary last month.

“The best thing that could happen for them is to do what they did,” said defense attorney Steven Dobbs of the guilty pleas. “It’s really a Mickey Mouse crime. It’s tricks and devices. There is no violence. The key to it is, it is a strike on their record.”

Under the state’s three-strikes law, the defendants could have their sentences doubled if they offend again.

Since law enforcement officials suspect that the men have been involved in other crimes and have linked one defendant to outstanding warrants in two other states, prosecutors hope that a felony strike will serve as a deterrent.

“I think it’s a great resolution,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Audry Rohn. “It’s a really good safety net for the people of California.”

Thomas Boyd; Sonny Miller, who previously went by the name Dan Miller; and Earl Ely, who first gave police the name Tom Wood, pleaded guilty Wednesday. Boyd is from Anaheim, but court officials could not say where Miller and Ely live.

The judge agreed to let the trio change their pleas to not guilty if probation officials recommend prison time instead of county jail sentences. Defense attorneys said the men would rather go to trial in that case because they are afraid of going to prison.

“They are very fearful,” said attorney Bernard W. Minsky, who represented Boyd. “My client is a recent convert to Christianity. He’s praying.”

As for the Merles, Minsky said that Boyd regrets participating in stealing the couple’s money. “He has indicated to me he is very sorry. . . . He was a passenger in this car. They were originally going to go fishing.”

But instead of rockfish along the Ventura-Oxnard shore, the gypsies were the ones who got caught.

Minsky and Dobbs said they hope the judge will take two factors into consideration when deciding how to sentence their clients. Neither have criminal records, they said, and neither committed a violent offense.

“They don’t have felonies, they have families,” Dobbs said.

“They are very close,” Minsky said. “They are commonly referred to as gypsies. It’s almost what I would call a subculture. . . . They are not a violent people.”

The three are to be sentenced on Nov. 25. Until then, they remain free on $200,000 bail.