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20-year-old gets 23 1/2 years for Port Richey burglaries

By JAMAL THALJI
Published November 4, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - They lost more than just cash, electronics and jewelry during the spate of burglaries that terrorized Regency Park last year and left a 74-year-old neighbor beaten in his own home.

They lost peace of mind, too.

The victims assembled in a courtroom Friday and asked: Shouldn't the burglar, Brian Vincent Stoll, lose something too?

"Our lives are changed forever," said Tony Lang, whose home was being ransacked when he walked in with his youngest son. "Why shouldn't his?"

Circuit Judge Joe Bulone ordered just that, sentencing Stoll to 23 1/2 years in prison.

The judge could have put Stoll away for life, as prosecutors wanted. Or Bulone could have departed from sentencing guidelines and sent Stoll to county jail.

Stoll's family asked the judge to do just that, saying prison won't help his bipolar disorder and alcohol and drug addictions.

The judge decided on prison but spared Stoll, 20, the maximum because he had no serious prior criminal record.

From April to September 2005, authorities said, Stoll would scope out, then burglarize the Port Richey homes. He stole more than $45,000 in goods, according to Pasco sheriff's reports.

Stoll was to go to trial Sept. 5 but threw himself on the court's mercy, abruptly pleading no contest to nine counts of burglary, nine counts of grand theft and one count each of tampering with a witness and armed burglary.

One break-in Sept. 11, 2005, turned violent, according to a sheriff's report, when Stoll beat Merle Smith, 74.

That same morning, a half- mile away, Beverly Bobrick, 79, was found murdered. The case remained unsolved.

The Sheriff's Office didn't link the two cases. But Stoll's mother, Mary Michelle Berkowitz, did with her March arrest. She was accused of threatening the life of a witness who she thought would implicate her son in the murder investigation. She told the Times that she was just upset.

Berkowitz, 51, was almost arrested again Friday. Bailiffs removed her from the courtroom when she became disruptive, then escorted her out of the West Pasco Judicial Center.

She is set to go to trial Dec. 18 on a charge of tampering with a witness.

Jamal Thalji can be reached at 727 869-6236 or thalji@sptimes.com.

[Last modified November 4, 2006, 08:14:41]