Fingerprint left onwine bottle leads to Skippack burglar

NORRISTOWN» When he left his fingerprints on a wine bottle in the home he was burglarizing, a Skippack Township man left a calling card that led state police right to his doorstep.

Devin William Daisey, 26, of the 3900 block of Shainline Court, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court on Friday to 1½ to three years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of burglary in connection with the Nov. 10, 2016, early morning breakin at a home along Abbey Lane in Skippack while the homeowner and his family were asleep inside.

Judge Joseph P. Walsh, who accepted a plea agreement in the matter, also ordered Daisey to pay total of $3,970 in restitution in connection with the case and to stay away from the Abbey Lane residence.

In a “victim impact statement” submitted to the judge, the homeowner said asmuch as the financial and material loss hurt, the true impact of Daisey’s crime “is associated with the violation of the sanctity of my home.”

“It is not the safe place that it used to be to recover from a long day. There is an underlying concern that someone at some time may intrude into our space and violate the place where we sleep,” the victim wrote in the letter included in court records.

An investigation began about 7:50a.m. Nov. 10when the Abbey Lane homeowner reported to state police at Skippack that someone had stolen his 2016 Acura vehicle fromhis driveway and a computer, a cellphone and $400 cash from inside his home overnight. The computer, cellphone, cash and the key fob for the Acura were on a desk in the home and the vehicle was in the driveway when the family went to bed, court papers indicate.

The homeowner also told police that several wine bottles had been moved to the kitchen island in the residence.

“He related that those bottles were not out when hewent to bed and his wife did not move them there,” state police Trooper Jerrold Hatfield wrote in the arrest affidavit.

State police investigators subsequently recovered several latent fingerprints from the wine bottles and they were submitted to a state police crime lab for analysis.

At 10:30 a.m. police recovered the stolen Acura in a common parking area of Sarah Lane in the township. Troopers also recovered several latent fingerprints from the Acura, court documents indicate.

A forensic analysis determined the fingerprints lifted fromthe wine bottles and the vehicle belonged to Daisey. Police said Daisey resides in close proximity to Sarah Court where the vehicle was recovered.

Court papers indicate that while police were at the Sarah Court scene recovering the Acura, they observed Daisey walking from his residence toward the Acura. Daisey allegedly turned away when he observed the troopers, according to court documents.

Daisey was arrested weeks later when the incriminating fingerprint analysis information was obtained.

Under the plea agreement, Daisey is eligible for the state Department of Corrections’ Quehanna Boot Camp in Clearfield County. But state prison officials will make the final decision as to where Daisey will be housed while serving his prison term.

“It isnot the safeplace that it used tobe to recover froma longday. There is an underlying concern that someone at some time may intrude in toour space and violate the place where we sleep.” — Skippack burglary victim