FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 3, 2014
Contact: Heather F. Williamson
Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office
20 East Market Street
Leesburg, VA 20176-2809
(703) 777-0242
REPEAT OFFENDER SENTENCED FOR BREAKING AND ENTERING
LEESBURG MAN TO SERVE ONE YEAR AND FOUR MONTHS IN PRISON
LEESBURG, Virginia – October 20, 2014. Judge James F. Almond sentenced Tavaruse Amante Priest, 27, to an active sentence of one year and four months in the Virginia Department of Corrections in connection with a 2014 incident in the Town of Leesburg. Priest pled guilty to one count of breaking and entering in Loudoun County Circuit Court on September 8, 2014.
In late June 2014, a Detective with the Leesburg Police Department was assigned to investigate a report of a theft from a residence. The victim reported that when he returned home on June 25, 2014 he found his television and nail gun were missing from his residence. Subsequent investigation revealed Priest as the primary suspect. Priest sold the missing television to a local pawn store and returned the missing nail gun to a Home Depot store in exchange for store credit.
In an interview with the Detective, Priest confessed to entering the victim’s residence twice, first taking the television and then later returning to steal the nail gun. Priest claimed that the door to the residence was not closed all the way and swung open when he knocked. Priest further advised Detectives that he thought the residence belonged to an individual who owed him money and that’s why he was there.
Priest has a lengthy criminal record with one prior felony conviction for receiving stolen property and eleven prior misdemeanor convictions, mostly for theft offenses.
In addition to the total active sentence of one year and four months, Almond imposed an additional three years and six months suspended time conditioned upon his good behavior and his successful completion of three years of supervised probation upon his release from prison.
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