Copper wire thief gets 3 years in prison
Terwik A. Ludwig, a 41-year-old man who was accused together with a teacher of burglarizing a store’s generator room and stealing copper wires, pleaded guilty in Superior Court and was slapped with a three-year prison term.
Ludwig pleaded guilty on Wednesday to burglary as part of a plea agreement. He also admitted to violating the terms of his probation in a 2010 criminal conviction.
Associate Judge David A. Wiseman sentenced Ludwig to five years in prison, all suspended except for two years, for burglary.
Ludwig was also sentenced to a year in prison for probation violation and was ordered to serve the sentence consecutively with his sentence in the burglary case.
This means Ludwig shall serve a total of three years in prison. He was given credit for time served in the burglary case.
After completing his sentence, Ludwig will be placed on five years of supervised probation. He was ordered to pay a $500 fine, plus probation costs, complete 200 hours of community service, and write a letter of apology to New Kagman Market.
The Office of the Attorney General had charged Ludwig with burglary and theft and filed a petition to revoke his probation.
As part of the plea deal, the remaining charge of theft was dropped.
Ludwig entered the generator room of the New Kagman Market on Oct. 26, 2014, by removing panes from the window, with the intent to steal copper wires. This violated the conditions of his probation. Police said the stolen copper wires were worth over $1,600.
Ludwig’s co-defendant, George Lieto Jr., a then-teacher at Chacha Oceanview Middle School, pleaded not guilty. His case is pending in court.
Hope they can catch copper thieves on Guam too.
Elsewhere copper wire theft is usually 10 years automatically.
Thanks for the attachment.
BTW, years ago there was a law that put a delay on ALL containers from recycling companies from being shipped off island for 30 days.
So what happened to that law.
There was also a law passed that equired ALL sellers of any recycling material top be in view of a security camera and also a copy of an leagal ID with picture to be on record.
The biggest problem in the CNMI is with the recycling dealers which in fact are majority (if not all) Chinese)
If the recycling dealers abide by the law there would be not much problems. (same with the pawn shops and the legal requirement to purchase)
We went through his problem on Tinian with the few recyclers there that did not abide by the law.
They are protected by the cop shop and other elected.
So what is it on Saipan an Rota?
Best put sever penalties on the buyers also, I mean very severe penalties.
The the problem will be to enforce all of this with Judges to ahnd out the appropriate sentences and the cops to have the ability (or interest) to do some basic investigation and arrests. .
Buenas Captain,
We are reviewing other state’s scrap metal statutes and we would be coming up with a recommendation for another bill that would reflect CNMI Senate Bill 18-51 in several days.
As for the 10 years prison term, it might be possible for the repeat offenders or recidivism to be given such severe punishment. But for first time offenders, it might be excessive of a punishment. For example the State of Texas, stealing a six pack of beer or certain quantities of penny would qualify for their scrap metal statute and the punishment is so severe for the crime committed. And the State of Texas is trying to address such predicament.
Si Yu’us Ma’ase