Sun City burglary retrial planned

Prosecutors aren't done yet with the man they claim is the "Sun City burglar."

While Anthony Wright was convicted of six felony counts and two misdemeanors for possessing property stolen from some of the perhaps 100 homes broken into over an 18-month period, the jury was hung on 26 burglary and grand larceny charges.

Deputy District Attorney Bill Koot said Thursday his office has decided to retry Wright on those allegations in hopes another jury will see things differently. A Jan. 31 retrial was scheduled for Wright, who also has been convicted of half a dozen theft-related felonies in California.

Wright is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 14 by District Judge John McGroarty for the stolen property convictions, and Koot said he will ask at that time that the defendant be declared an habitual criminal and sent to prison for life.

Deputy District Attorney Taleen Pandukht said Wright also is facing trial on seven counts of being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm, stemming from the discovery of seven guns during a search of his house in March that turned up the stolen Sun City property.

A Nov. 15 trial date has been set on those charges.

Although the jury this week couldn't agree if he is the "Sun City Burglar," that is where he was caught in March by a swarm of Metro Police officers who were targeting the area of a serial break-in artist.

The burglary spree began in October 1997 and continued unabated despite the efforts of police who identified the thief's pattern of hitting homes for three or four nights in a row and then taking a break.

In March, after the first strike in a new series of burglaries, Metro flooded the area in Summerlin with officers who converged on a neighborhood where a burglar alarm had sounded.

Wright was tracked to a hiding place under a bush.

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