Posted in Felonies on November 23, 2014
Albert W. Martofel, 42, pleaded guilty to first-degree theft in Clark County Superior Court. The Vancouver man stole a travel trailer from an 83-year-old man who uses it as a home. The accused was sentenced to five months in jail for the crime. Martofel entered an Alford plea, meaning that he officially acknowledged a jury could find him guilty but did not admit to committing the crime. In exchange the deputy prosecutor dismissed other charges: first-degree possession of stolen property and residential burglary.
On September 26 Bill Laubach, the owner of the trailer, parked it in front of a Walgreens in Vancouver and went across the street to McDonald’s. When he came back out he saw a white male suspect hooking up his trailer to a pickup truck and then driving away with it. Laubach said he ran after the vehicle but couldn’t catch up to it. Police responded but did not locate the suspect or the trailer.
The stolen trailer was spotted by a citizen and reported on October 1. Martofel was found inside and arrested, suspected of several crimes. The trailer was returned to Laubach by law enforcement. In a court hearing, Martofel claimed that he had bought the trailer from an individual and didn’t know that it had been stolen. He reportedly told his mother that he had purchased it at the Portland Auto Auction. Martofel’s Vancouver defense attorney, Nicholas Wood, said that the case would have been hotly contested at trial.
The judge was skeptical of the accused’s claims and sentenced him to five months of a possible two to six months confinement.
Source: The Columbian, “Man is given five months for stealing 83-year-old’s home,” Paris Achen, November 21, 2014.
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