6 more charged in burglary

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 4, 2009 | by Ethan Thomas Deseret News

Six more people have been charged with possessing some of the property stolen from the house of Olympic bicyclist and Salt Lake resident David Zabriskie.

Valerie Marie Banyai, 39, Christopher A. Kennedy, 45, Diego Victor Briseno, 41, and Paul D. Halladay, 49, have all been charged with two counts of theft by receiving stolen property. Jamie L. Soter, 46, and Zachery Allen Ramey, 20, were charged with one count of the same crime.

Police said Zabriskie's home was burglarized while he was away at a race. In all, about $250,000 in property was taken, according to police.

More arrests are expected, and investigators believe at least 31 people and 18 cases can be linked to the people involved with the Zabriskie burglary, said Salt Lake police detective Dennis McGowan. Evidence in related cases from Ogden to Murray has been tied to those in the Zabriskie case, he said.

After the Zabriskie burglary, a confidential informant told police that most of the stolen items from the Zabriskie home were with a man named J, who was later identified as Leopold Jay Howard, the charges state. Howard was charged in early March with two counts of burglary and four counts of theft, and police believe he was the main person responsible for the burglary.

The informant told police that Banyai, who is Howard's ex-wife, had picked up some of the property, according to the charges. Police executed a search warrant on Banyai's residence, where Kennedy was located at the time, and they found stolen property valued at $3,131.96, the charges state.

Banyai told police that "she knew the property was stolen, that (Howard) had been trading it for drugs and that he had brought it to her saying 'the heat is on' after news broke about the Zabriskie burglary," the court documents state.

Banyai told police another man, whom police later identified as Briseno, had also taken some of the stolen property, prosecutors say.

After Howard was arrested, he explained that he committed the burglaries with another man, Craig William Carlisle, who was also charged earlier this month.

E-MAIL: ethomas@desnews.com