2 more arrests made
in Carey School case
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Two more county residents were
arrested last week for their alleged involvement in a weekend burglary
two weeks ago at the Carey School.
Ruben Delgado, 18, who lives just
south of Ketchum, was arrested Tuesday, Feb. 10, at his home and is
being held at the Blaine County Jail on a $10,000 bond, said Blaine
County Sheriff Walt Femling. A 16-year-old juvenile was arrested
Thursday, Feb. 12, at his Hailey home.
Femling said the Blaine County
Prosecutor’s Office issued arrest warrants early last week on the two
suspects. Search warrants were not issued, however, and police are not
sure if the suspects possessed any of the property that was stolen from
the school on Saturday, Jan. 31, or Sunday, Feb. 1.
"This is part of our continuing
investigation into that crime," Femling said. "We believe we have all
the people responsible now."
Two other men were arrested last
week on felony burglary charges for their alleged involvement in the
burglary. One of those men graduated from the Carey School last spring.
On Tuesday, Feb. 3, sheriff’s
deputies arrested Harrison J. Gamino, 20, of Hailey and Robert J.
Garcia, 19, of Bellevue. In addition to burglary, Garcia was charged
with a probation violation.
Gamino graduated from the Carey
School with the class of 2003. He attended school in Carey from
elementary school through high school.
"He was an okay student," said
Carey School Principal John Peck. "We didn’t have problems with him."
Almost all of the goods and money
that were stolen from the Carey School have been recovered, said Chief
Deputy Sheriff Gene Ramsey.
Gamino bonded out of the Blaine
County Jail on a $10,000 bond. Garcia and Delgado are still at the jail,
both on $10,000 bonds.
Approximately $10,000 in cash and
electronic equipment was stolen after burglars broke through the window
of a first-grade classroom and crawled through the building’s ceilings
to access the school’s hallways and main office area.
During the course of a traffic
stop in Hailey on Feb. 3 Blaine County Sheriff’s Office deputies
discovered that the car contained some of the stolen property. By
Tuesday afternoon, Garcia, the car’s passenger, had been arrested. Upon
searching the hotel room where Garcia had been staying, police
discovered more stolen property. Gamino was there and was placed under
arrest about 3:45 p.m.
The suspects arrested Feb. 10 had
previously been identified as "persons of interest," Ramsey said.
Authorities said they knew to
watch Gamino and Garcia because of a tip they received.
"Our investigation was leading
that way. We were checking leads," Ramsey said.
Also, while searching the car,
evidence of another burglary surfaced, Ramsey said. The car contained
medical bags and a mask from the Carey Quick Response Unit ambulance.
The car contained a laptop computer, computer projector, one digital
camera and several pairs of sneakers that were all reported stolen from
the Carey School, Ramsey said.
In all, about $2,500 in cash was
stolen from the school’s main office area, where it was kept in a locked
cabinet, Peck said. A Dell laptop computer with an estimated value of
$1,500 and two digital cameras—a four-year-old Sony and a Cannon
estimated at $350—were stolen from Peck’s office.
A $4,500 computer projector was
also stolen, and three soda machines were destroyed to access the dollar
bills that might have been tucked inside.
But the perpetrators didn’t stop
there.
Peck said nine pairs of "old
stinky" gym shoes ranging between size 9.5 and 11 and three or four
pairs of "old dirty" gym shorts were stolen from a junior high locker
room.
Peck said he discovered the crime
scene on Sunday, Feb. 1, at about 7:45 a.m. when he was going to the
office to do a little work. The crime is believed to have occurred
between 10 p.m. Saturday night and 7:45 a.m. Sunday morning.