One of four bungling burglars pleads guilty

One of the four men arrested after breaking down the door of the wrong house in an allegedly pre-planned burglary entered a guilty plea in district court earlier this week.

Branden Lee Alden Billings, 20, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit burglary on June 22 after reaching a deal with prosecutors. Judge Robert Allison set sentencing for Sept. 22.

Billings — along with alleged co-conspirators Joseph Craig Neva, Joseph Claude Victoria and Colton Theodore Wieczorek — were picked up by Kalispell Police officers in March after allegedly forcing their way into a home on Fourth Avenue East. According to court documents, the quartet planned to strike the home of a mutual acquaintance, hoping to come away with drugs and money.

But the group allegedly ended up at the wrong residence, kicking in the door in front of the homeowner. She screamed, sending the men fleeing out onto the street and into an idling pickup truck, court documents said.

In court, Billings admitted to the basic facts in the charging documents, including planning the burglary, buying gloves and donning head coverings, and acknowledged kicking in the door. Under questioning from Deputy County Attorney Ashley Frechette, he denied planning to beat up the group’s original target.

“I was told there was marijuana and money there — a lot,” Billings said when asked about the motive for the attempted burglary.

Billings offered a brief protest when prosecutors described the group as friends, saying “I wouldn’t call them friends” of Neva, Victoria and Wieczorek.

Allison also took a turn grilling Billings before accepting his plea. He referred to Billings as “the kick-man,” a nod to the 20-year-old’s role in the break-in.

“What if when you kicked that door open, she had been standing there with a gun?” asked Allison, referring to the homeowner. Billings admitted not knowing what he would have done in that situation.

Allison also asked whether Billings was on drugs during the break-in, which Billings denied.

“This almost sounds more like a burglary to me,” Allison said. “But conspiracy is fine.”

PROSECUTORS WILL recommend Billings serve a suspended five-year sentence for conspiracy to commit burglary, as outlined in court this week.

Billings is the first of the four to head toward a conclusion to the outstanding felony charge. An attorney for Wieczorek, 19, requested a three-day trial shortly before Billings changed his plea. That jury trial is set to begin later this summer.

Victoria, 19, who was scheduled to appear in court on June 22, successfully sought a continuation until the late fall earlier this week. His attorney, Thane Johnson of Johnson, Berg and Saxby told the court via a motion that Victoria had just recently retained them as counsel. Victoria, who faces an additional charge for allegedly threatening his partners if they cooperated with authorities, is due back in court Nov. 16 for a pretrial conference.

Appearing in court ahead of Wieczorek and Billings, Neva, 19, agreed to have his case continued until the fall. He appeared without counsel after getting rescinded by the public defender’s office over trouble with his income documentation, though he claimed that his assigned public defender had not kept up communication with him.

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.