An Olympia man has been sentenced to a total of 85 months in jail, with credit for time served, and 12 months of community custody after pleading guilty to charges related to two Chehalis burglaries that occurred in January and May 2019.
Ryan D. Ward pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary and second-degree theft on March 17 and was sentenced in Lewis County Superior Court on April 14. He is currently in custody serving time for a separate residential burglary conviction out of Grays Harbor County.
He allegedly called the burglaries “crimes of opportunity” and said “he committed the burglaries to fund his drug addiction,” according to court documents.
Ward admitted to entering two residences, one on Middle Fork Road on Jan. 20, 2019, and one on Meskill Road on May 22, 2019, and taking property valued between $750 and $5,000.
Ward was arrested after blood collected at the scene of the Middle Fork Road residence and fingerprints found at the Meskill Road residence were tested and found to match Ward.
At the time of the Lewis County investigation, the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office was investigating two additional burglaries, one from September 2018 and one from June 2019, involving the theft of coins, jewelry and firearms.
Ward was interviewed on June 16, 2020, and “indicated that the thefts in Grays Harbor were committed because he would go to the beach often,” according to Lewis County Superior Court documents.
“He stated that he took the items to Lewis County to trade for drugs and that he didn’t remember each of the burglaries specifically, but that he chose easy houses where he could get back on the road quickly,” according to court documents.
He was convicted for residential burglary in Grays Harbor County on Oct. 26, 2020, and later transferred to Coyote Ridge Corrections Center to carry out his 19-month sentence. He was transferred to the Lewis County Jail on March 4, where he is currently in custody.
