“Suspect in 2009 Princeton jewelry store robbery indicted”

Suspect in 2009 Princeton jewelry store robbery indicted

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 02:17 AM PDT

PRINCETON – A Florida man facing charges connected with the burglary and later closing of a Princeton jewelry store was been indicted by the Mercer County Grand Jury.

"We finished up the indictments today," said Prosecuting Attorney Timm Boggess, who confirmed that Juan Antonio Manresa Leyva, 40, of Hollywood, Fla., had been indicted on felony charges of breaking and entry and grand larceny.

If convicted, Leyva could serve up to 10 years in prison for each charge.

Leyva allegedly broke into the Diamond Land jewelry store in Princeton in November 2009 by cutting through its roof. The store, which had no insurance, later had to close.

Investigators estimated during Leyva's preliminary hearing last June that approximately $145,500 in jewelry and cash were stolen after the store's safe was cut open with an acetylene torch. A board was placed over a window between the back room and the store front to keep people from seeing the torch's light. The walls near the safe were cooled with buckets of water to keep them from catching fire.

The Princeton Police Department was led to Knoxsville, Tenn., when they learned of a BOLO (Be On the Lookout) notice describing more than 30 burglaries committed in other states along the East Coast. Princeton's burglary was similar to the ones described in the notice.

A link between Leyva and Diamond Land was allegedly discovered when the Florida Department of Law Enforcement executed a search warrant at his home and found a Mullens High School class ring that had been on layaway, Detective D.B. Whited said during the June hearing. Cell phone records indicted that Leyva had been in Princeton during the time of the burglary.

Leyva, who is from Cuba, said through a Spanish language interpreter during the June hearing that he had bought the ring from a drug user in Miami, Fla.

Law enforcement agencies in states including Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Maryland and Alabama have been investigating similar burglaries of jewelry stores and pawn shops. Ten other people had been arrested in connection with those cases.

A trial date for Leyva will be set Oct. 25 during docket day at the Mercer County Courthouse. Leyva is being held at the Southern Regional Jail near Beckley. His bond was set last June at $5 million.

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