SEATTLE — A man has been charged with dozens of commercial burglary-related crimes dating back to 2006, including the theft of 22 guns from an Olympia firearms store in January, and cases have been brought against four others as a result, officials said Tuesday.
Adam Christopher Davis, 37, of Tumwater, has confessed since his arrest in May to 48 commercial burglaries at businesses ranging from fast-food outlets to tonier restaurants, a gun shop and a rare coin store, including 22 in the Olympia area, Olympia police Lt. James Costa said.
Some of the burglaries date back to 2005, beyond the three-year statute of limitations, but Davis still faces 46 charges, including 20 of firearms theft, 17 of second-degree burglary, one of first-degree burglary while armed with a gun and eight other offenses, Thurston County Deputy Prosecutor David H. Bruneau said.
Three cases against others have been referred to county prosecutors and a fourth is pending against Joseph Anthony Torres of Olympia in U.S. District Court of Seattle. Torres, convicted in Olympia in 2005 on a state charge of cocaine possession, remained in custody Tuesday on a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Olympia police arrested Davis on May 7 for investigation of a burglary last year at a Vitamin Shoppe outlet.
According to documents filed in the case against Torres, one of the burglaries Davis admitted to police was at J&S Gun Parts on the afternoon of Sunday, Jan. 4. He told investigators he ripped wooden siding from a rear corner of the building to gain entry, grabbed handguns from an unlocked display case and made off with 25, dropping three as he ran from the building and into some nearby woods.
“It’s a lot of money in there,” he told police, according to documents filed in Superior Court. “A lot of people want to buy guns.”
Four days after the burglary, Davis said, he sold 14 of the 22 guns for $1,300 to Torres, whom he identified from a photographic lineup. He told investigators he asked for half the listed sales price but accepted far less because Torres was aggressive and he feared for his safety, according to documents filed in federal court.
Davis said he sold another gun to Vernia Wright, who is facing state charges of attempted murder and drive-by shooting, investigators wrote.
On May 15, eight days after Davis was arrested, federal agents, Olympia police and sheriff’s deputies searched Torres’ house, found a semiautomatic pistol that had been taken from J&S, an ammunition magazine for the gun.
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