Wyoming man pays fines after pleading guilty to thefts in 1994 without plea deal
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PARIS — A man who was recently arrested in Wyoming for a string of Idaho burglaries in 1994 has been released after paying court-ordered fines.
Bryan Caldwell, 49, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of petit theft without ever reaching a plea agreement with the Bear Lake County Prosecutor’s Office, court records show. The charges stemmed from a 1994 incident Caldwell referred to as the foolish mistake of a “stupid 18-year-old kid” in a phone conversation with EastIdahoNews.com.
During an April 10 hearing, Magistrate Judge Todd Garbett accepted Caldwell’s guilty pleas and ordered him to pay $375 in fines.
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After responding to the report of a burglary at a home in Ovid, Bear Lake County sheriff’s deputies assisted in the pursuit of the burglary suspect, later identified as Caldwell, from Rich County, Utah, to Evanston, Wyoming. Officers from the three states successfully stopped Caldwell, ending the chase with his arrest.
At the time of his arrest, Caldwell was found in possession of items stolen from two Idaho homes, including three handguns, a Sharp Slimcam VHS Camcorder and a 1962 Fielding High School class ring.
Speaking with EastIdahoNews.com, Caldwell admitted that he stole items from homes in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. However, he was adamant he never intentionally failed to appear in court on the charges in Idaho.
As he explained, Caldwell spent time in prison in Wyoming and Utah. In 2007, he was arrested in Wyoming on a bench warrant out of Idaho.
When he appeared in court, he was released and believed he would be informed by his public defender if the prosecutor’s office decided to pursue the 13-year-old charges. The next he heard about those charges was earlier this year, when he was stopped in Wyoming for speeding and learned again he had an active warrant out of Idaho.
“I’m a totally different person now,” he said. “I was a s***ty kid, I made a lot of mistakes. … Had I known about it back then, I would have addressed it.”
Following his sentencing hearing, Caldwell was released and the 30-year-old case was closed.