A Jefferson City man was placed on five years supervised probation after pleading guilty to five counts of second-degree burglary in connection with multiple break-ins in June 2019 at Jefferson City businesses.
During a hearing before Cole County Judge Dan Green, Dakota Blackburn, 26, was also ordered not to go into any of the businesses he burglarized and serve a 90-day shock detention sentence in the Cole County Jail, with credit for time served. He must also pay a yet-to-be determined amount of restitution.
If Blackburn is found to have violated any of the conditions of his probation, he could face seven years in prison.
Burglaries were reported at Las Palmas Taqueria and China Wok, both in the Capitol View Plaza on Ellis Boulevard, according to a Jefferson City Police Department probable cause statement.
Authorities said Blackburn and an accomplice entered the businesses by breaking a window. More than $3,000 was stolen from the cash registers at both stores.
Three more burglaries occurred June 29.
The first was at Mi Tolteca on Route C, where Blackburn and his accomplice pried open and cut an exterior wall to get inside and remove a safe containing more than $4,000. They then went to Colton's Steak House on Missouri Boulevard and broke out a window, taking $40 from the cash register, then used tools to cut a hole in an inner wall to break into the manager's office. They used power tools to try to cut into the safe in the office but fled and left the tools behind.
The third burglary was at El Jimador on West Edgewood Drive, where authorities said Blackburn and his accomplice cut out a portion of the wall and ceiling above the bar to get inside. Nothing appeared to have been taken, but several thousand dollars' worth of damage was done.
A fingerprint lifted at Mi Tolteca matched Blackburn, and surveillance footage at China Wok and El Jimador showed Blackburn in their businesses. Also, a shoeprint found at El Jimador matched shoeprints left behind at Colton's.