Burglary while Radford family’s at funeral home brings men 7-, 9-year sentences
RADFORD — Plundering the home of a grieving couple while they were at the visitation for their dead son — a former city police officer and U.S. Marine — was a low point even in the context of decades of criminal convictions amassed by Warren Douglas Collins and Jerry Allen Conley, a prosecutor argued Monday.
“This is devious and reprehensible on a whole other level,” Radford Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Rehak said.
Conley, 41, of Narrows, and Collins, 45, of Pulaski, pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to a string of charges tied to the January 2020 break-in at the home of the mother and stepfather of Gary Allen Cross.
Cross, besides being a Radford police officer and Marine, had been a federal Border Patrol agent and more, according to his obituary. He died at 49 from cancer, Rehak said Monday in the city’s Circuit Court.
Rehak recounted how a few days after Cross’ death, Conley and his girlfriend spotted an announcement of the visitation that Cross’ family was holding at a funeral home. They waited until the visitation was in progress, then drove Collins to the house to break in, Rehak said.
When Cross’ mother and stepfather returned home, they found their back door destroyed, the house ransacked, and jewelry and cash missing.
In separate sentencing hearings Monday, Collins and Conley were each given 20-year prison sentences by Judge Joey Showalter, with more than half of each sentence to be suspended.
Collins’ sentence is to be suspended after he serves seven years and five months, the high-end of the punishment suggested by state sentencing guidelines for his case, Showalter said.
Conley is to serve nine years and two months, the high end of the range recommended by his guidelines, then the rest of his prison term will be suspended, the judge said.
Collins was convicted of breaking and entering, grand larceny, conspiracy charges tied to breaking and entering and grand larceny, possessing stolen property with the intent to sell it, and destroying property. Conley, whose middle name is spelled Allen in court records and Alan in the New River Valley Regional Jail’s inmate list, was found guilty of the same charges, plus possessing drugs and larceny, third or subsequent offense.
Much of Monday’s hearings involved descriptions of the two men’s long criminal records, with Rehak arguing that the combination of years of convictions and the circumstances of the latest robbery merited a punishment greater than state guidelines suggested.
Defense attorneys Eric Frith of Blacksburg, who represented Conley, and Angi Simpkins of Dublin, who represented Collins, countered that the guidelines did take the defendants’ pasts into account. They said ongoing drug problems were the reason for many of the crimes on both men’s records.
Collins had 35 prior convictions for felonies and 20 for misdemeanors, was on supervised probation 13 times and had it revoked for violations 10 times, a probation officer said. Conley had 15 prior felony convictions and eight misdemeanors, plus an array of criminal and non-criminal traffic offenses.
Each man’s criminal record spanned more than 20 years.
“For 24 years this defendant has been a menace to society and he hasn’t learned a thing. This is a joke,” Rehak said of Collins.
With Collins on the witness stand, Rehak asked him about tattoos that did not show in his arrest photo.
“What’s tattooed on the top of your head?” Rehak asked.
“A rebel flag — and a clown,” Collins answered.
Of Conley’s history of thefts and other offenses, the prosecutor said, “When’s he going to do this again? It’s shortly after he gets released.”
Collins protested that he had “done my time for all my back history.” He said that when he referred to a pre-sentence report as “bull crap,” he was not describing the charges but what he called an unfair depiction of him as the leader of the robbery.
Collins and Conley admitted they took the stolen jewelry to a pawn shop in West Virginia and sold it so they could buy methamphetamine.
Both apologized to Cross’ family, with Conley saying, “I know words can’t change what happened. … I’m just sorry for everything.”
Frith gave the court a check for $1,801 that he said came from Conley’s mother and was to cover Cross’ family’s out-of-pocket expenses from the theft.
That was part of an ordered restitution that totaled about $11,600. It also would repay the insurance company that covered much of the family’s losses. The judge told Conley that if all the restitution was not paid, Conley would get another 10 years to serve.
Showalter said both men are to be supervised by the probation office for five years after their release.
To Collins, he warned, “You come back before this court and you’re going to serve the remainder of your sentence.”
Also charged in the case was Conley’s former girlfriend, Cheyenne Taylor Epling. She pleaded guilty in March to an assortment of theft-related charges and was sentenced to serve five months.
