- Tyler Dean Ryks, 18, of New London, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, which was stayed, a $500 fine and five years of probation on a felony charge of receiving stolen property for stealing video games from a rural New London home.
As a condition of the stayed sentence, he was ordered to serve 165 days in jail, with credit for 109 days already served. He was ordered to pay $797.12 in restitution and pay the fine within 24 months.
Judge David L. Mennis also ordered Ryks to complete a chemical dependency evaluation and treatment program and comply with the aftercare recommendations, plus have no contact with the victims, their property or with his co-defendant, Steven Jon Lynn Horton, 18, of Sunburg.
The charges were filed after the Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office investigated a home burglary on Nov. 15 in rural New London. The homeowner said his child came home to find furniture moved and electronic items missing. The missing items totaled $1,845 in value and included a Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS system, games, controllers, digital cameras, batteries, a DVD player, a wallet, cash, gift cards and $350 in cash and change in an apple cider jug.
Through interviews with several people, deputies learned that some of the equipment had been sold at a Willmar gaming store and to a Willmar woman. A deputy recovered the equipment sold to the store, which had collected the seller's name, address and date of birth. The original owner properly identified the equipment. The person who bought the Wii from two males for $150 gave police a description of the two and a cell phone number that registered to a family member of Ryks. The serial number sticker to the equipment had been removed. The two male sellers had said they were updating their system and were selling the equipment.
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- Olivia Salvador Leal, 26, of Willmar, was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in prison, which was stayed, a $274 fine and five years of probation on two felony charges for wrongfully obtaining assistance and forgery.
As a condition of the stayed sentence, she was ordered to serve 45 days in jail. She was also ordered to serve $383.97 in restitution and cooperate with agents from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
As part of a plea agreement, four additional felony charges for forgery and perjury and a gross misdemeanor were dismissed.
The charges were filed after an investigation revealed that Leal applied for and received approval for public assistance benefits in June 2006 from Kandiyohi County Family Services under her real name. She was required to report her income and employment to Family Services. However, she worked under a false name, that of Yolando Nieto, at Jennie-O Turkey Store and did not report her income. When asked about it, she told investigators she didn't report the income because it would disqualify her from benefits. She signed three employment documents in the Nieto name, plus the assistance application. The overpayments of public assistance were $383.97.
- Arle Bonerges Hernandez, 21, of Willmar, was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in prison, which was stayed, a $274 fine, and three years of probation on two felony charges of forgery.
He was ordered to serve 80 days in jail, with credit for 80 days already served, and cooperate with agents from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
As part of a plea agreement, two additional charges of aggravated forgery were dismissed.
The charges were filed after the Willmar Police Department received information from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Feb. 22 that Hernandez was a Honduran national using the name Miguel Angel Rosa Rivera when he applied for a Minnesota identification card. The information also contained a photo of Hernandez, taken when he was arrested by ICE agents in April 2007.
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Police investigated and found that Hernandez had applied for an identification card on March 21, 2007, with a birth certificate and Social Security card in the Rivera name. The identification card photo matched the ICE photo.
After Hernandez had bonded out on the immigration charges, he used the false ID to apply for and obtain work at Jennie-O Turkey Store in July. He was arrested and admitted to using the Rivera documents to get the ID and to using the ID to get work at Jennie-O. He said he purchased the documents for about $800 and admitted to using them to get work after he had been arrested by ICE agents.
