Student enters guilty plea, sentencing scheduled for March 7
A Syracuse University engineering student who was arrested for burglarizing two South Campus apartments last year has pleaded guilty as part of an agreement that, if followed, would see him avoid any jail time.
Brad Valik, 21, was arrested and charged last winter for burglarizing an apartment on the 200 and 400 blocks of Winding Ridge Road.
Syracuse police accused Valik, along with Erwing Augustin, 20, of stealing a 37-inch Panasonic flat-screen TV, a 37-inch Insignia flat-screen TV, an Xbox, a set of Xbox controllers, Playstation games and an amplifier early Feb. 23. The items were worth more than $2,100, according to the felony complaints against them.
Police said the two burglaries happened shortly after former Syracuse football players Markus Pierce-Brewster and Davon Walls burglarized an apartment on the 400 block of Winding Ridge Road. The two were accused of stealing a 39-inch Magnavox TV, two iPods, an Xbox and Xbox controllers. The items were worth about $950 total.
Both have since pleaded guilty.
When reached on his cellphone on Sunday, Valik said he didn’t have much to say. He said his own apartment was burglarized earlier on Feb. 23, which he described as “mitigating circumstances” for his own case.
Valik pled guilty to felony third-degree burglary on Jan. 10, said Assistant District Attorney Michael Manfredi, who prosecuted the case.
Like Pierce-Brewster and Walls, Valik will be sentenced to interim probation for one year. If he follows the terms of his probation, the felony charge will be reduced to second-degree criminal trespass — a misdemeanor. He’s due back in court for sentencing on March 7.
Walls is expected back in court for sentencing on Feb. 21; Pierce-Brewster is due back for sentencing on March 21.
Assistant District Attorney Manfredi said Augustin’s case is “pending.” His next court date is listed as Feb. 20. Augustin’s lawyer, Laurin Haddad, didn’t immediately return a phone call late Friday afternoon.
Published on February 10, 2014 at 1:32 am
Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum
