Teen charged in drug, money heist
Toolbox
By Josh O'Gorman STAFF WRITER - Published: May 21, 2009
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Cavendish teen who is already facing counterfeiting charges was arraigned May 12 on charges he stole money and medication from his grandparents.
Zachary McNeill, 17, pleaded innocent in White River Junction District Court to two felony counts of burglary and two misdemeanor counts of petty larceny. The charges carry a combined maximum penalty of 32 years in prison.
According to affidavits filed with the court from both police and McNeill himself, Chester Police received a complaint March 12 from McNeill's grandfather, who said someone had entered his home and taken 22 of his hydrocodone pills.
Police found a fresh set of footprints in the snow leading from the grandfather's house to a nearby apartment parking lot, records state. Several neighbors told police they had seen McNeill park in the lot and walk over to his grandfather's house, affidavits state, with one neighbor saying McNeill had pulled into the lot three or four times while the grandfather was home and only parked when he was gone.
Police said the grandfather's house was burglarized a second time March 22. This time, police said, the burglar took the remaining hydrocodone, as well as a lock box from a bedroom closet containing silver coins, dollars and certificates, savings bonds and a birthday card with dimes glued to it that was given to his wife when she was 17. Police said the value of the items in the lock box exceeded $500.
Affidavits state the lock box was later found in a snowbank on Trebo Road in Chester.
March 31, police interviewed McNeill, and according to both the police affidavit and a two-page handwritten affidavit from McNeill, he confessed to both burglaries. McNeill told police he would return the items stolen from the lock box, but as of April 27, when affidavit was filed, he had not done so, records state.
McNeill was already facing felony counterfeiting charges for allegedly printing his own $20 bill and giving it to a friend to spend at a local store. He is currently free on conditions he stay away from that store, not use a printer or scanner and not harass his grandfather.
josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com
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