Judge offers to dismiss man’s charges in comic theft
MILFORD — A judge offered a Waterbury man charged in the theft of more than $200,000 in rare comic books a choice Monday.
Either tell the state how the purloined publications came into his possession from a locked unit in a Shelton self-storage facility and walk out of court a free man, or go to trial and face a possible 40 years in prison.
The suspect, Saul Salazar, 36, is scheduled to return to court Dec. 4 with a decision.
Salazar is one of three suspects, along with a father and son from Ansonia, charged with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny.
The stolen comics, which included the first Spiderman, Fantastic Four and X-Men, plus several early Captain America comics, were eventually recovered.
He has been awaiting trial for nearly four years since his January 2020 arrest, and rejected a plea deal calling for up to three years in prison in 2021.
But state Superior Court Judge Kevin Russo noted Monday that Salazar had no criminal record, which could make him eligible for the charges to be dismissed — if he successfully completes a pretrial diversionary program and comes clean about how he got the comic books.
“They just want to know how something like this could have happened,” the judge said.
“And if you were able to provide those details to the state’s satisfaction, I would consider granting you one of those programs, with a few attached conditions that trust me, you’ll be able to do, and you’ll walk out of here with a clean record.”
The judge asked Salazar to think about it and come back to court with a decision next month.
“I’m not going to be upset if you come back and say ‘I’m not interested.’ But I personally am interested in making sure people walk out of here with no record if they deserve to have that kind of treatment,”
Russo said.
“I happen to believe you could be one of those people who deserve that type
of treatment, because what they’re asking you to do in my opinion doesn’t seem all that difficult or compromising. It’s really just tell the truth. If you do that, I think you’re going to be fine.”
The prosecutor in the case, Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Howard Stein, didn’t seem optimistic about the prospects of resolving the case next month.
“I just believe ultimately that this is going to have to probably be tried,” Stein told the judge in court.
Salazar’s lawyer, Charles Kurmay, declined to comment.
The theft was reported in July 2019 by a collector who had a unit at the CubeSmart Self Storage on Bridgeport Avenue in Shelton.
A few weeks later, the victim told police he saw some of the stolen comics on display at a store in New Haven, according to an arrest warrant.
The store owner told the collector he had purchased the titles from three men and provided them with a phone number and $800 check he wrote to a co-defendant of Salazar’s, James Wadsworth Sr.
Wadsworth told police the comics were used to settle a debt owed to him from a co-worker, according to the arrest warrant.
Later, Shelton police learned Salazar had a storage unit near the collector’s unit, the warrant states. Police said Wadsworth and his son helped sell the comic books.
The warrant says Salazar told police he had found the comic books and agreed to an interview with detectives.
But two hours after missing the meeting, police said a detective spotted Salazar in a car being driven by a woman and pulled it over after an alleged illegal turn.
Salazar said he was on his way to the police department, according to the warrant. He gave a detective permission to look inside the vehicle, where police said there were two bags of comic books.
Police ultimately recovered all 532 comic books that had been taken, according to an arrest warrant.
The victim placed the total value of the stolen comics at $204,500.