Retired locksmith gets 5 years for multiple store burglaries
Dec. 22—A retired locksmith who told police he took lock picks with him when he left the job and used them to break into numerous businesses in Hartford's suburbs in summer 2021 to support a heroin addiction has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Anthony C. Chiarizio, 62, who has listed an address on Stinson Place in Windsor, pleaded guilty to third-degree burglaries in South Windsor, Glastonbury, Windsor, Enfield, and West Hartford, Superior Court records in Manchester and Hartford show.
His total sentence is five years in prison, followed by three years of probation, with the possibility of up to five more years behind bars if he violates release conditions, according to Department of Correction records. Chiarizio still has a case pending in Vernon Superior Court in which he is accused of a third-degree burglary in that town, online court records show.
He was accused of committing several burglaries of businesses in Manchester but didn't plead guilty in those cases. There are indications in police documents that he is also suspected in burglaries in Berlin, Wethersfield, and Bloomfield, but he hasn't been charged in those cases.
Chiarizio said in an electronically recorded interview with Glastonbury police Detective Christopher Kopencey that he took care of his brother, who died in April 2021, and later relapsed into heroin use and began burglarizing businesses to pay for the drugs, according to a Manchester police report.
Chiarizio has "extensive health problems," having suffered two heart attacks, and has "significant problems with mobility" that require him to use a cane, public defender Laura M. Hamilton wrote in a bond motion filed in June in Hartford Superior Court.
Manchester police Detective Tomasz Kaczerski reported that when he attempted to make contact with Chiarizio in August 2021, he learned that Chiarizio was a patient in Hartford Hospital's intensive care unit.
Among the identifying characteristics police detectives noted after watching surveillance video of the burglaries were that Chiarizio had a hunched back and walked with a limp.
Hamilton wrote that Chiarizio's health deteriorated while he was in jail, held in lieu of high bond, since the time of his initial arrests in August 2021.
After multiple arrests, his bond reached more than $300,000, which resulted in his losing his work assignment in jail and, with it, the health benefits of moving around the dormitory, according to the defense lawyer. She stressed that his crimes were non-violent, with no charge involving violence in any court.
Most of the crimes didn't involve significant property damage, but windows were broken in the doors of at least two businesses, the Sun Sun Chinese restaurant on Oakland Road in South Windsor and the Hibachi Grill in West Hartford.
A record check showed that Chiarizio had 65 arrests on charges including robbery, burglary, and larceny, South Windsor police Officer Daniel Cain reported in an affidavit on burglaries in his town.
In an interview with a Windsor police detective, Chiarizio said he didn't remember the burglaries because he was usually high on heroin when he committed them. He later gave a detailed confession to three Windsor burglaries, according to an affidavit by an officer in that department. Chiarizio also said he was living in his car but frequently parked in the driveway of his cousin's home on Stinson Place in Windsor, the officer reported.
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