Law enforcement likes outcomes like these.
Three men arrested for a string of Manatee County burglaries — including one in the 500 block of 70th Street in Holmes Beach — have been sentenced in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court to the Florida Department of Corrections.
All three pleaded no contest and were found guilty. Austin Tyler Hale, 23, was sentenced Sept. 19 to 80 months; in February, Zachary William Stein, 22, received a 36-month sentence; and, in November 2016, Jimmy Louis Harris, 21, was handed a 72-month sentence. Hale and Harris are formerly from Bradenton. Stein lists a Cosby, Tennessee, address.
Manatee County deputies, Holmes Beach Detective Sgt. Brian Hall and Longboat Key police coordinated efforts to break the cases.
Hall gathered evidence from surveillance equipment that caught the men loading a getaway vehicle with a Tennessee tag after a Feb. 7, 2016, break-in at a Holmes Beach residence. LBKPD provided data from its license-plate-recognition device at the Longboat Key-Bradenton Beach border.
Stein and Harris were stopped in a vehicle Feb. 8, 2016, by a Manatee County sheriff’s deputy, who recalled a prior dispatch about the vehicle being involved in the burglaries.
Hall’s affidavit led to a police raid on Hale’s home a day later, where items stolen in the burglaries were recovered.
Deputies also connected the trio to Bradenton burglaries, including those in the 4000 block of Riverview Boulevard and the 4700 block of 89th Street.
“I think it’s great that the case came together so well and everybody was sent to prison,” Hall said.
All three men received credit for time served and three-year probation sentences.
A no-contact order prohibits Hale from contact with the victims. Stein was ordered not to contact co-defendants while on probation.
In the Holmes Beach case, the three men were ordered to pay the victim $1,773 in restitution.
They are all young and non-violent. After a turn in the DOC they will be hardened criminals. I loathe those of you who think this is the answer. Your willingness to throw away young lives speaks volumes.