'Snake burglar' pleads guilty to 54 break-ins in Riverside County
The man dubbed the "snake burglar" for his attempts to slither along the ground to avoid detection while breaking into businesses, pleaded guilty to 54 counts of felony burglary on Thursday.
Christopher Michael Paul Jackson, 32, of Riverside admitted to the myriad counts of burglary under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, resolving all of his pending cases. Superior Court Judge Gary Polk certified the agreement and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense ― seven months in county jail and 12 years’ mandatory supervision. Polk also ordered him to pay $158,235 to his victims.
But he was expected to be released from custody as soon as Thursday, due to the "non-violent" nature of his crimes and state law designed to reduce overcrowding in jails.
Jackson broke into locations across Riverside and Moreno Valley, including restaurants, health clinics, medical offices, and beauty salons. He was ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from those businesses. As part of his sentence, Jackson will also be required to complete a six-month residential substance abuse treatment program, and to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet for 12 years of mandatory supervision.
Detectives nicknamed Jackson the “snake burglar” due to his practice of crawling along the floors of businesses that he’d broken into to avoid motion detection alarms.
The defendant, who has burglary convictions going back nearly a decade, was singled out by District Attorney Michael Hestrin, Riverside police chief Larry Gonzalez and other law enforcement officials as an example of what they say is a flaw in the state's legal system, stemming mainly from Assembly Bill 109, passed by the Legislature in 2011, and Proposition 47, approved by voters in 2014.
“Unfortunately, this case, although uniquely named, is not unique in California,” Hestrin said. “It is unconscionable that a habitual offender like Christopher Jackson can steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from hard-working people, admit to it, and legally serve less time in jail than the time it will take his hundreds of victims to recoup their losses.”
AB 109 reclassified crimes such as theft to enable repeat offenders to receive mandatory supervision in lieu of jail, or to serve prison sentences in often already overcrowded county jails. Prop 47 reduced many theft- and drug-related offenses from felonies to misdemeanors.
Gonzalez said in April that the laws “have made it increasingly difficult to ensure the safety of our citizens.”
The main justification for AB 109, signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, was to reduce prison overcrowding. But as Gonzalez and Hestrin pointed out in April, the state is now in the process of closing penitentiaries or ending their leases to correctional space in numerous locations, including Riverside County.
The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Courtney Breaux of the Felony Prosecutions Unit.
Janet Wilson is a reporter for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com. City News Service contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: 'Snake burglar' pleads guilty to 54 break-ins in Riverside County
