(The following report by Robert Gavin appeared on the Albany Times-Union website on June 27.)
ALBANY, N.Y. — The reputed mastermind of a crime ring that stole tons of high-priced copper wire from National Grid substations and the CSX rail yard was sentenced Tuesday to up to 11 years in prison and could face more time behind bars.
Jeremy Roberts, 23, of Averill Park, was sentenced on the felony theft charges on the same day his pregnant fiancee planned to have labor induced at an area hospital, said his lawyer, Lee Kindlon.
“I just hope in a few years he can be reunited with his new family,” Kindlon said.
Roberts was arrested in December as he cut wire from a spool at the National Grid substation in Menands. Investigators said he was the ringleader of a crew that broke into National Grid substations last year in Menands, Warrensburg and Brunswick, cut up the copper wire and loaded it into a truck. Police said the thieves would then go to a mountain top in Berlin, where they would burn off the rubber coating. The wire would then be sold at scrap yards, police said.
Four other suspects were arrested in March. The men made at least $100,000 from the scrap metal in 2006, a National Grid security manager said in March.
Roberts will serve up to five years in prison for criminal mischief and up to six years for grand larceny. The sentences are to run consecutively.
He faced a potential 18-year sentence on multiple felonies before taking the plea deal before County Judge Thomas Breslin. Roberts still faces up to three additional years in prison when he pleads guilty to charges in Rensselaer County Court, Kindlon said.