NEWPORT BEACH — A 26-year-old man pleaded guilty March 12 and was immediately sentenced to six months in jail for his part in the theft of about $200,000 in jewelry from several stores at a Laguna Beach shopping center last summer.
Alexander Kenneth Joe Aguirre, who pleaded guilty to grand theft in a deal in which a burglary charge was dismissed, was also placed on three years of formal probation.
Aguirre was arrested Feb. 28 in Oceanside in connection with the thefts last July 26 at jewelry businesses at The Shops at the Cliffs, according to Laguna Beach police Sgt. Jim Cota.
Co-defendant Edward David Torrison, 30, of Oceanside, pleaded guilty — and was sentenced to 32 months in prison in October — to four counts of second-degree burglary, two counts of grand theft and one count of receiving stolen property. He also admitted sentencing enhancement allegations of property damage exceeding $65,000.
Torrison was arrested last Sept. 26 in Oceanside, where he lived with his girlfriend. Police found about $500,000 in stolen jewelry and two loaded guns in the suspect’s residence, according to Cota.
Losses from the July 26 burglaries at The Shops at the Cliffs storesexceeded $200,000, according to Cota, who said both defendants were seen in the surveillance video.
-— City News Service
