FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 18, 2013
Contact: Heather F. Williamson
Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office
20 East Market Street
Leesburg, VA 20176-2809
(703) 777-0242
HERNDON MAN CONVICTED OF THEFT
FROM HIS FORMER EMPLOYER
SEVEN AND A HALF YEAR SENTENCE RECOMMENDED
LEESBURG, Virginia – June 17, 2013. A Loudoun County Jury found Timothy Irvin Mears, 37, guilty of statutory burglary and grand larceny. The single day trial concluded with the twelve person jury recommending that Mears serve seven and a half years in the Virginia Department of Corrections.
In the late evening hours of March 13, 2012, Mears entered Bowman’s Plumbing in Sterling, Virginia and stole $210.00. Mears had previously been an employee of the business, but was terminated approximately six months earlier for theft and embezzlement from the company.
During the course of the trial, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jason A. Faw presented evidence including a surveillance video showing Mears entering the building through a side door, proceeding into the business office, and then exiting the building through the front lobby. Faw told the jury that although this was a property crime it held an “element of danger.” He asked the jury to take into consideration that these are the “kinds of cases where people can get hurt, because you never know who you will run into.”
After the jury returned a guilty verdict, Faw presented evidence of Mears’ prior criminal history which spans three states and includes prior convictions for assault and battery, possession of a controlled substance, theft, and embezzlement. Additionally, Mears was recently convicted of accessory to burglary, accessory to grand larceny, and felony receiving stolen property in Fairfax County. A sentencing hearing for those convictions is currently scheduled for June 28, 2013 in Fairfax County Circuit Court.
A final sentencing hearing for the Loudoun County convictions will be conducted on September 27, 2013 before the Hon. Thomas D. Horne who presided over the trial. Under Virginia law a judge may reduce a jury’s recommendation by providing written reasons therefore, but may not increase a jury’s recommendation.
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