WHITE PLAINS, NY — A jury returned a guilty verdict in the burglary trial of Steven Santiago,31, and Ivan Bonilla, 30, for breaking into homes in Harrison and New Rochelle. Westchester County Court Judge David Zuckerman presided over the trial. Both defendants were convicted in less than an hour Friday morning.
Specifically, they were found guilty of:
two counts of Burglary in the Second Degree, class C violent felonies; Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree, a class E felony; Attempted Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree, a class A misdemeanor
They are scheduled for sentencing July 3, 2019. Santiago, as a mandatory persistent violent felony offender, faces life in prison. Bonilla faces two consecutive 15-year sentences, exposing him to a possible 30 years in prison.
On June 11, 2018, Steven Santiago, of Manhattan, and Ivan Bonilla, of the Bronx, broke into an apartment on Halstead Ave. in Harrison. The homeowner walked in on the burglary in progress and both burglars jumped out of a second-floor window. One defendant suffered a broken bone and both travelled to St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. Harrison Police scoured town surveillance video and immediately identified the getaway car. This information led them to the registered owner who provided GPS information to this car. The GPS information along with surveillance video and DNA evidence both at the scene and at St. Barnabas Hospital helped identify these defendants.
A similar burglary took place in New Rochelle May 29, 2018 inside an apartment at 39 Fountain Place. The defendants entered through the front door but escaped using a rear fire escape where they were observed by an apartment dweller. GPS and license plate readers (LPR) in the City of New Rochelle corroborated the defendants’ involvement in this second residential burglary.
Assistant District Attorneys of the Superior Court Trial Division Daniel Flecha and Christine O’Connor, Chief of the Homicide Bureau, prosecuted the case.