Hole-in-the-wall burglars sentenced

The last chapter on a group of young men known as the hole-in-the-wall bandits was penned in late December when the final two members of the group, Shadryck L. Brown and Alvin Bustamante, were sentenced to a combined 12 years in prison.

Between the months of December 2008 and March of 2009, a group of five teenage perpetrators were responsible for committing nine burglaries in Maricopa. In a majority of the burglaries, the men broke into residences by kicking a hole through an exterior wall.

During the last burglary attempt, the homeowner walked in on two of the perpetrators who then threatened him with weapons before fleeing the home.

Police arrested three of the suspects, Peter V. Rizzo, Isaac C. Solis and Alvin Bustamante, in March 2009. Shadryck L. Brown and Arnold M. Valenzuela-Lozano Jr. were arrested a few weeks later in April.

All of the men involved in the crimes were residents of Maricopa except for Valenzuela-Lozano who was from Guadalupe.

For his part in the crime spree Brown was sentenced to serve five years while Bustamante was sent away for seven years.

The remaining suspects pled guilty to lesser offenses that resulted in probation. 

“This investigation took hundreds of man-hours by members of the Maricopa Police Department, but could not have been completed without the help of the victims and witnesses who stepped forward and assisted with information to help bring this case to a successful conclusion,” said city of Maricopa spokeswoman Latricia Woods.