Eden Valley, Minnesota, man sentenced to more than four years for burglary

Jun. 28—LITCHFIELD

— An Eden Valley who was charged with breaking into a home and stealing a handgun was sentenced to 50 months in prison for burglary.

Dylan Chance Kelly, 23, of

Eden Valley

, pleaded guilty in Meeker County District Court in December of 2022 to one count of first-degree burglary.

In exchange, charges for theft of a firearm, a fifth-degree drug possession charge and possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of controlled substances were dismissed. According to the plea petition, the prosecution also agreed to recommend a "bottom of the box" sentence — the lowest number in the recommended range of the sentencing guidelines — despite knowing Kelly's attorney would be seeking a departure from the guidelines.

Kelly was originally scheduled to be sentenced the same month he pleaded guilty but circumstances had prevented completion of a presentence investigation. Sentencing was conducted in May after the court ordered Kelly to be apprehended for a pretrial violation, according to court documents.

Judge Stephanie Beckman ordered Kelly be committed to the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud for 50 months with credit for 27 days.

In Minnesota, convicted offenders must spend at least two-thirds of their sentence in custody before being eligible for supervised release. According to the Minnesota Department of Corrections website, Kelly's anticipated release date is Jan. 20, 2026.

According to the criminal complaint, a man reported a burglary on Aug. 4, 2022. The man said he had left his residence in Manannah Township in the morning to go work on a construction project with another male in the Twin Cities. When he returned home later that night, he observed that items within his home were not where he had left them. After further inspection, he realized his front door was not completely closed.

Suspecting that he had been burglarized, the man began looking to see if anything in the home was missing. The man reported he was missing a 9mm handgun, some cash and two prescription pills.

According to the complaint, the man immediately named Kelly as a potential suspect as he had worked with him on other construction projects in the past. Kelly had not gone to the Twin Cities to work that day, and the man suggested that Kelly likely would have known he wasn't home during the day.

On Aug. 7, the same man reported a second burglary at his residence. This time he reported that three more firearms had gone missing and he again named Kelly as a potential suspect.

He told law enforcement he had since spoken with his co-worker about the incidents. According to the complaint, the co-worker relayed to him that he had found an owner's manual for a 9mm handgun in his truck and stated that Kelly had been the last person that used his vehicle.

On Aug. 9, 2022, law enforcement executed a search warrant at an Eden Valley residence and recovered a revolver under a bed — which Kelly later said was his — and drug paraphernalia.

Kelly was detained, and a patdown search yielded a piece of tinfoil and a rolled-up dollar bill, which field-tested positive for the presence of fentanyl.

According to the complaint, Kelly initially denied burglarizing the Manannah Township residence. When asked about the owner's manual found in the truck, he admitted to entering the residence on Aug. 4, 2022, and taking a 9mm pistol. He also said he stole around $50 from the residence. Kelly said he traded the pistol to somebody on the same day as the burglary.

Kelly denied responsibility for the second burglary of the home.