VISTA (CNS) - Two men who stole several thousand dollars worth of copper
wire from North County job sites after being hired to repair telephone lines
in the area were sentenced today to jail time and placed on three years
probation.
Apple Valley residents Jean-Paul Allee, 30, and James Kuhio Ulmer, 43,
pleaded guilty last month to felony grand theft charges.
Ulmer, who has a prior conviction for receiving stolen property, was
sentenced to 180 days in custody. Allee was given credit for 66 days in jail.
David Edward Murphy, 40, also of Apple Valley, and David Rivas, 41, of
Los Angeles, pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor grand theft charges and
were sentenced immediately to three years probation and given credit for time
served, said Deputy District Attorney George Loyd.
The defendants worked for Gulbranson Services Inc., an Oro Grande-based
company hired by AT&T to repair telephone lines that were damaged in a fire
last June, said San Diego County sheriff's Sgt. Bob Bishop.
The sergeant said the four men used large service trucks to remove
several thousand dollars worth of telephone lines.
Some of the thefts and removal of wire resulted in the loss of telephone
service in the area, Bishop said.
According to Bishop, detectives had the temporary company storage yard
under surveillance April 5 when Rivas and Murphy arrived with a spool of stolen
AT&T wire.
While detectives were still there, Allee and Ulmer arrived in a large
service truck with a heavy steel spool containing used AT&T telephone wire,
Bishop said.
Detectives later learned that particular spool and telephone wire had
been stolen from job sites in Rancho Santa Fe and Pala, the sergeant said.