MONTEVIDEO -- A defendant suspected in a series of home burglaries that occurred last summer in Montevideo while residents were sleeping will be serving more than six years in prison after his conviction for first-degree burglary.
Jordan Lee Downwind, 20, of Montevideo and formerly of Red Lake, was sentenced Wednesday in District Court in Montevideo on felony convictions of first-degree burglary and fifth-degree drug possession.
A stayed sentence for a first-degree burglary conviction as a juvenile was imposed.
District Judge Randall Slieter revoked the sentence for a juvenile offense and imposed the 58-month sentence Downwind had received for the conviction.
The judge sentenced Downwind to 21 months in prison for the first-degree burglary conviction from an incident last summer in Montevideo, and made it consecutive to the 58-month sentence, for a total of 79 months to serve, according to Chippewa County Attorney Dave Gilbertson, who prosecuted the case. The court also sentenced the defendant to 19 months for the drug charge, but made that sentence concurrent. The court dismissed a first-degree conviction for receiving stolen property, as it resulted from the same behavioral incident.
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Downwind will be given credit for time served, which is to be calculated by the state Department of Corrections. He was also ordered to pay fines and fees and make restitution in the cases.
Downwind was convicted of felony counts of first-degree burglary, receiving stolen property and fifth-degree drug possession following an Aug. 25 court trial before Judge Slieter.
Facebook messages -- some of them made on a laptop the defendant is accused of stealing --provided evidence in his conviction. In a findings of fact attached to the verdicts, the court cited the messages as showing the defendant's concern about being apprehended for the burglaries. They also included a statement by his mother urging the defendant to go to the Red Lake Reservation. "ASAP... you have to go like yesterday.''
During the court trial, she had testified that her son had spent the entire summer on the reservation. The court found her testimony was not credible.
Montevideo police had charged that Downwind on July 27-28 stole two laptop computers, a wallet and $700 in cash, various electronic devices and DVDs from the home of a Montevideo resident while he was sleeping.
On Oct. 12, Montevideo police searched the apartment in Montevideo where Downwind was staying with his grandfather. They recovered one of the stolen laptops, a photo of the husband and wife from whose home the laptops were taken, four wallets, an iPod charger, a credit card statement and a bag holding 55.8 grams of marijuana.
The Toshiba laptop computer's hard drive was sent for computer forensic testing. Information retrieved from it showed it to have been registered to the burglary victim, and that the computer contained data added by Downwind and his maternal grandfather. The new data included a photograph of Downwind and his tattoo.
Downwind testified that the laptop had been given to him by another person in exchange for being fed and allowed to stay at the apartment. That person denied any involvement in the burglary.
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Montevideo Police Chief Adam Christopher and the burglary victim also testified at the trial. The police chief identified a number of home burglaries that occurred within six blocks of where Downwind was staying during the summer. In each, electronic items, cash, prescription and non-prescription medicines were stolen. Most of the burglaries occurred as the residents slept.
The police chief also testified that a spree of burglaries that occurred after the search of the defendant's apartment was different from those occurring prior. Power tools and air compressors were stolen from garages. Power tools were present but had not been stolen from the property where the laptop computers were stolen.
