Affidavit: Suspects Bragged About Burglaries, Got High on Heroin

Three suspects accused in an area wide burglary spree bragged about committing the crimes and sold the stolen property to support their heroin habit, according to arrest warrant affidavits released this week.

Dane Tilley, 30, of Middletown, Shane Martingano, 31, of Hartford, and Derek Perini, 29, of Hartford, were served Tuesday with a total of 15 arrest warrants for burglaries committed between November of last year and January 2013 in the towns of Durham, Middletown, Haddam and Killingworth.

All three men were incarcerated at the time of their arrests on related charges, according to police.

On Feb. 5, law enforcement officials from State Police, Middletown, Rocky Hill, Glastonbury, Wethersfield, West Hartford and East Hampton police departments held a meeting at the Middletown Police Department to share information on a number of unsolved burglaries at which time they developed Tilley, Martingano and Perini as the main suspects in the crimes.

Authorities got a break in the case a week later when they interviewed a woman, identified as Sarah Stuart, 33, of Hartford, who said she'd been living with Martingano and that many of the items the suspects stole were being stored at a condo she owned in the city, the affidavit says.

According to the affidavit, Stuart told police that she had repeatedly allowed the three men to borrow her 1998, tan colored Chevy S-10 pickup, which was linked to the crimes through various eyewitness interviews conducted by police.

Stuart told police that the three men wore gloves and used walkie talkies during the burglaries instead of using cell phones, and accessed the homes by using a window punch to break glass in doors or sliders, the affidavit says.

"… on a regular day the three men would wake up around 9 am, leave her residence in her truck, and arrive home later in the afternoon with the stolen property or heroin they obtained from trading stolen property," the affidavit says.

Stuart, who has previous convictions for larceny, assault and failure to appear according to court records, told police that she is addicted to heroin but was not involved in the burglaries and knew about them because "the boys would brag about their day to her."

The suspects "were committing up to four or five burglaries a day," the affidavit says.

Martingano, Stuart told police, even bragged about going into his victim's refrigerators to steal their food.

A search of Stuart's condo turned up stolen property from "numerous residences in Middletown as well as towns in the surrounding area," the affidavit says.

Tilley, Martingano and Perini are charged with third degree burglary, third degree larceny, third degree criminal mischief, third degree conspiracy to commit burglary, third degree conspiracy to commit larceny and third degree conspiracy to commit criminal mischief.

A fourth suspect, identified as Kara Czlapinski, 26, of Ivoryton, also faces charges in the burglary spree.

Authorities say the investigation remains ongoing and that further arrests or charges may be forthcoming.