Plea for treatment fails; burglar gets 5 years in prison

EVERETT — A Snohomish County judge told a prolific burglar Thursday that he didn’t deserve another chance to clean up his act on the public dime before sentencing him to five years in prison.

Kyle Rogers, 27, blamed his thieving ways on his addiction to heroin and methamphetamine. It’s an addiction, he said, that got a foothold after he was prescribed painkillers for injuries he suffered during a traffic accident.

To feed his addiction, Rogers turned to stealing. He burglarized numerous houses last fall in Snohomish County.

Rogers on Thursday asked for an alternative prison sentence that would have allowed him to serve half of his time in the community, getting drug treatment. He would have been under the supervision of the state Department of Corrections for more than two years.

Superior Court Judge Janice Ellis rejected his request for the alternative sentence, saying that Rogers already had been given a break and squandered the opportunity.

The community invests a significant amount of money on treatment for drug addicts, the judge said. Those resources are limited and should be invested in people who deserve help, Ellis said.

“The court absolutely has no confidence that you’ll do anything” differently, the judge said.

Rogers was convicted of residential burglary in 2012 in King County. He was given three months of residential drug treatment instead of prison time. He was on community custody for that conviction when he went on a burglary spree between August and October in south Snohomish County, primarily in a Lynnwood neighborhood.

He broke into at least eight houses, many times when people were home. In one instance, he was arrested for trying to break into a Lynnwood house and bailed out of jail, only to break into another house about an hour later.

Rogers told Ellis on Thursday he is desperate to change his life. He said he has a son on the way and wants to be a good father.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.