Burglar gets 27 years, but faces more trials

By SUSAN HERENDEEN
sherendeen@modbee.com

last updated: September 05, 2008 03:00:40 AM

A Modesto burglar who targeted affluent homes in the college neighborhood and Dutchollow was sentenced to 27 years, four months in prison last week in Stanislaus County Superior Court, but the legal action for Paul Michael Ruiz is far from over.

Ruiz, 34, was sentenced a year after jurors returned guilty verdicts on 10 of 12 felonies in a string of residential robberies. The matter was delayed as a defense attorney argued Ruiz deserved a new trial.

Another case that could add three more years to Ruiz's sentence was tried in January but remains in limbo as another defense attorney argues for a new trial.

And Ruiz has three cases that have yet to go to trial.

"It's a shame that it takes this long," Deputy District Attorney John Goulart said.

When he was arrested, police said Ruiz was the suspected ringleader of a crew that pulled off 100 residential burglaries.

Ruiz came to the attention of the Modesto Police Department on Nov. 9, 2004, when officers found a stolen van associated with a burglary in the college neighborhood parked a few blocks from Ruiz's home.

A traffic stop involving Ruiz, the result of surveillance in which officers watched Ruiz move several bags of property from his home on Whittier Avenue to his car, turned up a gun and a cache of stolen property.

When they served a search warrant at Ruiz's house, police found stolen property from several burglaries and a room with equipment that could be used to melt stolen jewelry, according to a statement from the authorities.

On July 8, 2005, Ruiz was spotted leaving a college neighborhood home with accomplices who packed stolen goods into two cars. The accomplices, who were arrested after a short chase, resolved their cases with plea deals and sentences of three to nine years in prison.

Ruiz fled on foot but was apprehended at the Red Lion Hotel in Modesto on Sept. 27, 2005. During one of his trials, an attorney claimed Ruiz is the victim of overzealous policing, because one of the victims is the father of a Mo- desto police officer who ran over Ruiz when Ruiz was arrested.

The burglar accepted two misdemeanor battery plea deals after he got into fights in jail, but he has insisted on taking his larger cases to trial. The prosecutor said he is eager to negotiate plea deals to resolve the remaining cases, but anticipates going to trial.

"I haven't gotten any positive hints that that's the way it will go," Goulart said.

Bee staff writer Susan Herendeen can be reached at sherendeen@modbee.com or 578-2338.

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