A September crime spree that included the theft of a large RV from a west Erie, Pa., business landed a 34-year-old man a lengthy state prison sentence Friday.
This story by Madeleine O’Neill originally appeared on GoErie.com.
Amir J. Cardenas, whom police listed as homeless, received seven years and seven months to 15 years and two months in state prison from Erie County Judge William R. Cunningham.
The sentence, which included four years of probation, went into the aggravated range of state sentencing guidelines. Cunningham pointed to Cardenas’ lengthy record, which includes 11 previous felony offenses, and the fact that Cardenas was on supervision at the time he committed new offenses in Erie.
Cunningham sentenced Cardenas for a third-degree felony count of theft by unlawful taking that incorporated the RV theft, as well as a second-degree felony count of burglary, a second-degree misdemeanor count of theft by unlawful taking and a first-degree misdemeanor count of possession of the instrument of a crime. The counts covered several crimes in which Cardenas was accused.
Erie police accused Cardenas of stealing a 2007 Itasca motorhome, valued at about $150,000, from Presque Isle Auto Paint and Collision, in the 1500 block of West 12th Street, just east of Greengarden Road, on Sept. 23. The RV was recovered in a parking lot in the 1600 block of Sassafras Street on Sept. 26, police said.