WESTFIELD – A Lee man who apparently came to Westfield to steal has been arraigned on charges that include two counts of breaking and entering a building in the daytime with intent to commit a felony and has been held without right to bail.
The suspect’s recent activities in the city allegedly began Sunday, March 3, when a North Elm Street apartment was burgled. The residents reported the next day that they came home to find that jewelry, a wallet and a debit card had been stolen.
City Det. Anthony Tsatsos reports, in a document filed with the court in support of a criminal complaint, that the stolen debit card was used at a convenience store and gas station near the turnpike entrance about 5 p.m. on Sunday.
The security video from the store showed that the person who had used the debit card had been operating a dark colored Toyota 4×4 pickup truck with roll bars.
A few days later, on Friday, March 8, the residents of a Union Avenue apartment reported that their apartment had been entered and a medicine cabinet had been pried open. An attempt had been made, the victims reported, to pry open an interior door.
Those residents said that they had returned home briefly on Friday to pick up their son and found a Toyota pickup truck with roll bars parked in the driveway. The male resident driving said that he had beeped his vehicle’s horn to urge the operator to move the vehicle.
He said that he found a male party exiting a common entryway of the building and the man engaged him in a short conversation about a vehicle he had displayed for sale.
The residents said that the man then left in the pickup truck.
Tsatsos reports that an attempt had been made to use the stolen debit card at a drug store in Lee but had been declined.
The detective sent an image of the suspect that had been garnered from the security video where the suspect had successfully used the debit card to the State Police barracks in Lee and a sergeant there recognized the suspect.
Tsatsos reports that the trooper called him on Friday and identified the suspect as Jereme Capitanio, 31, of 265 Meadow St., South Lee, whom he described as “a know (sic) heroin addict who steals to support his habit.”
Tsatsos then included a picture on Capitanio in photo array that he showed to the Union Avenue residents who identified him as the man they had found exiting their house.
At Tsatsos’ request, Capitanio was taken into custody by state troopers about 8:30 p.m. Friday and subsequently transported to Westfield. Interviewed by Tsatsos, Capitanio “admitted to being involved in both the 117 N. Elm St. incident and the incident at 51 Union Ave.”, Tsatsos reports.
On Sunday, a relative posted $1,000 cash bail and Capitanio was released from police custody pending arraignment yesterday in Westfield District Court.
When Capitanio appeared for arraignment before Judge Philip Contant, Contant entered a “not-guilty” plea on his behalf for the two breaking and entering charges, as well as charges of larceny of property valued more than $250 and misuse of a debit card valued less than $250.
Assistant District Attorney Mary Partyka argued for $2,500 bail, pointing out that the defendant is the subject of pending cases in both the Holyoke and Great Barrington district courts and has a history in the Great Barrington court of offenses dating back to his juvenile years.
Those offenses, Partyka said, include assault and battery, threatening, possession of a firearm without a FID card and operating under the influence of liquor. She said that he also has an out-of-state record of criminal offenses.
She asserted that Capitanio “is a danger not only to the victims of this case … (but also) the community at large”
Capitiano’s court appointed lawyer, John Kavanaugh, said that his client cares for his 84-year-old grandmother and said that the woman would be in “dire straits” if Capitanio were held. He also said that Capitanio is financially supporting his two-year-old child and argued that the $1,000 bail already posted on his behalf was “more than enough to get him back here.”
Contant ruled that “pre-trial detention is necessary for protection of the community.”
However, he set bail at $500 with conditions, if Capitanio is released, which include orders to refrain from “abuse, threats or violence” towards the victims and enjoining him from approaching their residences.
However, bail in the current case is immaterial for Capitanio, as Contant also ordered that bail on one of the pending cases in Holyoke District Court be revoked and that he be held without right to bail in that case.
Capitanio is due back in the Westfield court May 7 for a pretrial hearing.
