Student pleads guilty to theft of friend’s camera, possession of drug paraphernalia
November 20th, 2009 Posted in OpinionBy Cassidee Cline
LOGAN–A Utah State University student pleaded guilty to charges of theft and possessing drug paraphernalia Wednesday in 1st District Court. Jeremy Jase Torres, 20, admitted to stealing a bike and selling it on KSL.com, stealing a camera from a dorm on campus and possessing drug paraphernalia within 1,000 ft. of USU’s campus.
According to an affidavit, Torres was arrested Sept. 28 after being interviewed by police
and admitting to taking a camera from one of the dorm rooms at Richards Hall. The document said Torres also admitted that he tried selling the camera the same day he took it, Aug. 18.
Dave Ruzicka, a resident of Richards Hall, said he turned in a report to police officer Kim Ellis after he found out his camera had been taken out of his room. Ruzicka said he met Torres a month before school started and didn’t suspect Torres would have taken the camera. Ruzicka said Torres offered to help look for the missing camera and shortly after Ruzicka filed a report with USU police department.
“He made us not suspect he would do something like that just because he was completely normal about everything,” Ruzicka said. “I was in shock, I didn’t really suspect it was him at all.”
A couple days after the camera went missing, Ruzicka said Torres called and told him there was a posting of his camera for sale in the Taggart Student Center on campus. When Ruzicka arrived at the TSC the posting was no longer on the board, but Torres had two phone numbers that Ruzicka later turned over to the police.
Ruzicka said the police traced the numbers back to West Jordan under the name of Brent Anderson. He said Torres claimed Anderson was a student at USU who put up the posting, but police were unable to locate any student by that name. That same week, Ruzicka said, Torres said he was going to meet the guy who was selling his camera. After a couple of hours, he said Torres came back with the camera and everything, including Ruzicka’s social security card, still in the camera bag.
Ruzicka said the police questioned Torres after the recent situation was reported and Torres had a complete description of who sold the camera. Police had been searching for a Brent Anderson until late September when they brought Torres back in for questioning.
During the interview in September, Torres admitted to taking Ruzicka’s camera from the dorm and trying to selling it, the affidavit states. According to police documentation, they also found a bike sold on KSL.com that had been reported as stolen with Torres’ contact information as the seller and drug paraphernalia in Torres’ possession.
Torres pleaded guilty to all charges and is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 29.
Tags: 1st District Court, guilty plea, Jeremy Torres, theft
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