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School vandal pleads guilty

Teen to be sentenced in September

Ryan Sheridan

The first of the two defendants arrested in connection with the Aug. 10 break-ins at Moffat County High School and Sunset Elementary School has pleaded guilty to all charges. The extensive vandalism to both schools exceeded $50,000 in damages.

Christopher Allan Sanchez, 18, pleaded guilty on July 9 to two counts of second-degree burglary, Class Four felonies, and two counts of criminal mischief, Class Three felonies. Sanchez is scheduled to sentenced on Sept. 10.

He is currently in custody at the Moffat County Jail.



Sanchez will be sentenced as a juvenile, since he was under 18 at the time the crimes occurred.

He faces six months in jail, one year in CAPS (Correctional Alternative Placement Systems), or a long probationary sentence, according to Deputy District Attorney David Waite.



“He will be sentenced as a juvenile, even though he plead as an adult. I don’t have any choice in the matter,” Waite said. “What that sentence will be I can’t say until I’ve received the pre-sentence investigation. Until I’ve got that, I won’t know what kinds of terms and conditions should be applied.”

Sanchez will also be sentenced on Sept. 10 as an adult in a plea bargain on a separate felony charge of second-degree burglary and a charge of illegal consumption of alcohol, a misdemeanor. Both of these charges stem from another case. Jail time or probation could be sentenced, but the details of the punishment also won’t be known until after the pre-sentence investigation report for these charges are also complete.

The other defendant in the school burglaries and vandalism case, Thomas James Kober, 18, is due in court July 23 for a plea hearing.


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