Crown Point Country Club vandals, robbers sentenced

Two men who admitted tearing up three golf course greens with a pickup and taking tools were sentenced last week.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20131028/THISJUSTIN/710289993

Crown Point Country Club vandals, robbers sentenced By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT | October 28,2013 Email Article Print Article WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Two men who admitted tearing up three of the greens on the golf course at the Crown Point Country Club with a pickup and walking off with tools from a maintenance shed last Christmas Eve were sentenced last week. Alfredo “Manny” Gonzalez, 23, of Weathersfield and his friend Anthony Thompson, 24, of Springfield each pleaded guilty to a felony count of burglary and a misdemeanor count of unlawful mischief as part of a plea agreement which saw the state drop several similar charges that had originally been filed against them in connection with the same drunken vandalism spree. Both men will serve several days on the Corrections Department’s work crew for the vandalism and then will be placed on 0-to-4 year “community furlough” sentences, which are similar to traditional probation but with harsher consequences in the event of noncompliance. Gonzalez’s defense attorney, Dan Stevens, recommended the sentence structure to Judge Karen Carroll, saying he thought the outcome was in keeping with the recent guidance from Vermont legislators who have advocated keeping those who commit property crimes, as opposed to violent crimes, from taking up expensive space in the state’s prisons. When it became his turn to speak, Gonzalez, who as a teenager had previously worked for the maintenance department at Crown Point, described the holiday incursion onto the golf course as “probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life.” “Me and Mr. Thompson were under the influence of much alcohol and going there wasn’t a mission where we were planning to cause any trouble or damage the greens,” Gonzalez said, “We were just having fun and, in the heat of the moment in a pickup truck, doing some doughnuts in the field.” “So did you have some animosity towards the place?” Carroll asked from the bench. “No, that really had nothing to do with it. I enjoyed working there,” Gonzalez replied, saying it had been five years or more since he’d worked there while he was in high school. “We certainly see more serious offenses here, not that this isn’t serious,” Carroll responded. “But I have to say, things like this really get to me. It just so stupid to do something like this while really disregarding the harm that you are going to cause,” the judge said as Gonzalez nodded in agreement from behind the defense table. “You were (both) 20-some years old at the time, old enough to know better,” the judge noted, asking “Have you done anything about your drinking since then?” “Absolutely,” Gonzalez replied, “I work in agriculture and I might still have a few beers after work sometimes but I’m not going out partying and to bars anymore.” Thompson told the judge Wednesday that he has been “clean and sober” for several months since completing counseling as part of the court’s Sparrow Program, a service which is designed to help defendants whose alleged crimes have something to do with substance abuse. “I learned a lot there that was very helpful to me,” Thompson said. Both men admitted to carrying off over $10,000 worth of tools, welders and walkie-talkies from a maintenance shed at the country club that they managed to pry open during the spree, but Springfield Police said almost all of that property was located at both men’s homes during the investigation and returned intact to Crown Point.