WESTFIELD – A Springfield man was ordered to pay a local construction company $47.05 in restitution, among other fines, in Westfield District Court Friday.
Jesus Medina-Viera, 23, of 50 Windsor Street, Springfield, submitted to facts sufficient to warrant a guilty finding on charges of larceny under $250 and trespassing brought by Westfield Police after the owner of a local construction company came upon a man and a Chevrolet pickup truck on Fuller Construction’s Union Street property.
In the court’s statement of facts, the owner of the property, Don Fuller, said he confronted the individual shortly before 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 17.
The man said he had permission from the owner to take scrap metal from the property, which is adorned with a “No Trespassing” sign.
When Fuller identified himself as the owner of the property and told the man to put back the scrap metal he had already loaded onto his truck, the man drove off with the items, which included steel doors, rebar, and assorted pieces of aluminum.
Fuller was able to get the plate off the vehicle, which was found to be registered to a Norma Medina of Springfield, who Westfield Police spoke to the day after the theft. Medina said her brother Jesus Medina-Viera had borrowed the truck the day before.
Authorities discovered that Medina-Viera had sold the materials – 440 pounds of steel, 34 pounds of aluminum and six pounds of dirty wire – to Chet’s Auto Wrecking in Springfield at 10:48 a.m. on April 17 and received $47.05 for the assorted metals.
Westfield Detective Anthony Tsatsos said in the statement of facts that he spoke with Medina-Viera, who he said admitted to taking the metal but maintained that he had permission from the owner to do so, at which time Tsatsos informed him that he would be charged with larceny under $250 and trespassing.
After submitting to facts sufficient to warrant a guilty finding on both charges Friday, Medina-Viera was given a continuance without finding until February 27, 2015, and was ordered to pay $390 in fees, in addition to the $47.05 to Fuller.
