The Kansas man who pleaded guilty to stealing a Jackie Robinson statue from a Wichita youth baseball league earlier this year was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for multiple cases, police said.
Ricky Alderete, 45, had pleaded guilty in May to theft, related to the January disappearance of the statue, and other charges. He had faced more than 19 years.
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Police have maintained they don't believe the crime to be racially motivated but instead "by the financial gain of scrapping common metal."
Boy, that must have been a historically significant piece to get that kind of punishment.
was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for multiple cases, police said.
Multiple cases not charges. You think the people who steal metal do it once? You could be right and it's a complete overreaction. It could also be that this guy was habitual offender and they got him for something more like 1 year each on 15 cases. The story really doesn't tell you.
Edit:
Alerete was in custody after an arrest on February 1, for a probation violation, burglary, kidnapping and criminal damage to property unrelated to the theft of the statue, according to online jail records.
Boy, that must have been a historically significant piece to get that kind of punishment.
Multiple cases not charges. You think the people who steal metal do it once? You could be right and it's a complete overreaction. It could also be that this guy was habitual offender and they got him for something more like 1 year each on 15 cases. The story really doesn't tell you.
Edit:
According to a baseball nerd I know Jackie Robinson is regarded as the first post-integration MLB player, even if he's actually not the first.
Interestingly, integrating MLB destroyed the Negro Leagues, and with it, a lot of black neighborhoods.