Brothers net 15 years for cabin burglaries

PALMER — For burglarizing 15 cabins in the Skwentna area, two brothers arrested in their early 20s were sentenced to incarceration terms that won’t end until they’re in their 40s.

Benjamin Cross, 24, and Jeffrey Indellicati, 26, were convicted in December 2012 on 50 counts each of burglary, theft and criminal mischief relating to an April 2010 crime spree in which they tore through cabins in the Fish Lakes Creek area of Skwentna.

The brothers are both from the East Coast. In an interview with an online new site, they described their Alaska adventure as the tail end of a saga that began with a safe heist in New Jersey and took them to the Domincan Republic.

In Skwentna, they kicked in doors, cut open window screens, bogged down stolen snowmachines in the slushy spring snow and stole a slew of guns they used to blow holes in cabin walls and trees.

Thursday, Cross received a sentence of 17.5 years and Indellicati, 21.25 years. The difference in sentences was due entirely to Indellciati having prior felony convictions.

One victim of the burglary testified at the brothers’ sentencing Thursday that he has trouble now feeling safe in his remote cabin. Another strongly disagrees with assertions that the brothers were acting out of youthful indiscretion. In his 20s, the man said, he was buying land and clearing it by hand while living out of a pup tent. A third victim said he saw no reason the brothers should be given any kind of leniency.

For his part, prosecutor Michael Perry argued that the brothers showed no remorse for their crimes, citing that interview with the online media outlet.

“They spoke to a reporter about a month later. They’re sober. They’ve had their quote-unquote ‘eye-opener,’” Perry said. And what did they tell the reporter? “It was so fun, when I get out I’ll do it again.”

When troopers raised the prospect of a 25-year sentence, they laughed it off, Perry said.

“You guys are going to work for 25 more years? You suckers!” he quoted them saying.

He pointed out that they seemed to relish being seen as dangerous criminals, going so far as to jokingly brag to troopers about a murder there’s no evidence they committed.

And, he said, they endangered people. The gunshots, clearly, were dangerous. But they also stole supplies from cabins. Which, considering the cabin owners count on those supplies and could fly in without the ability to fly out, means they could have been put in grave danger.

Attorney Rex Butler, representing Indellicati, pointed out that his client is young and, while he has a criminal record on the East Coast, it isn’t a serious record.

“As we sit here before the court, Mr. Indellicati has done more jail time than he has ever done in his life,” Butler said, referencing the nearly two years the brothers have been in jail since their arrest.

He pointed out that his client may have burglarized those cabins, but he didn’t hurt anyone.

“He draws the line on violence to another human being,” Butler said.

He said that though the state was asking the judge to find the brothers were among the worst offenders in the category of burglary, they broke into unoccupied cabins. A burglary when a family is inside asleep, Butler argued, is much more serious.

“Quite often when imposing sentences you cannot satisfy complaining witnesses, victims,” Butler said. “My client cannot get out there and rebuild for them because that’s not how our system is set up.”

Cross’ attorney, Michael Horowitz, also pointed out his client’s youth.

“I’m still a young lawyer,” Horowitz said. “But, when I started college, he was 8 (years old).”

He said that he believes the burglaries should be treated as one extended crime spree rather than separate acts deserving of separate sentences.

“I don’t mean to be flippant, but I think, based on the evidence, that this was a single drunken crime spree,” he said. “No one was sober for any of it, except maybe while sleeping.”

Eventually, Superior Court Judge Vanessa White sided more with Perry than with the defense attorneys.

The sentence she handed down, she said, didn’t include any suspended time. Suspended sentences are used to keep parolees in line, as, in White’s words, a “sword of Damocles” hanging over their head to be used if they reoffend. White said there seemed little point since the brothers were likely to face charges in New Jersey and possibly Florida if released from custody. They also seemed to be poor prospects for rehabilitation.

“Their statements at the time of their arrest for these offenses demonstrate a complete lack of remorse, a lack of empathy,” White said. “They wanted to be perceived as dangerous criminals.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.