Crime & Safety
Would-Be Burglar Serves Time
The man tried to kick down a door and pry open a screen before he was arrested.
A man who tried to break into two Temecula homes was serving time today.
Marcel Mone Branch, 18, of San Diego, pleaded guilty in May to two charges of felony attempted burglary and one misdemeanor count of evading arrest, according to court records.
He was sentenced on May 25 to serve two years and 180 days in prison, the record shows.
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He was caught around 7:30 a.m. trying to break into a home on the 32000 block of Pine Circle Court, according to a sheriff’s official.
Branch rang the doorbell of the home, and when nobody answered, he tried the kick the door open, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Jon Wade.
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The door held strong, so Branch went into the backyard and tried to pry a screen of a window, according to the sergeant.
Branch ran away before deputies got there, but a witness followed him and saw him try to break into another home, the sergeant wrote in a report.
Deputies found Branch walking nearby on Poppy Street at Miro Way and arrested him, Wade wrote.
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