WINDSOR – SONOMA COUNTY – A burglar in a home in a well to do neighborhood was discovered by the homeowner, and then captured by police.
Detectives put together the scenario of the incident that occurred last weekend at a home in the hills in the northeast area of Windsor. According to Sergeant Michael Raasch of the Sonoma Sheriff’s office, late Friday night or the early hours of Saturday, the suspect broke a window of a locked garage on a house on Vinecrest Road. Robert Venoie Williams of Cloverdale, a small town about 25 miles north, gained entry to the garage. He went through a car inside belonging to the woman in the house, taking money and credit cards. He found items in the garage which were valuable antiques, and placed them near the back door, likely to pick up on his way out.
Having secured those items, he ventured into the house through the laundry room door. Either he believed the house was empty, or perhaps was not as quiet as he thought he was being, but the homeowner heard noises and got out of bed to investigate. He found the 31-year-old white man in his house and confronted him in an attempt to detain him, while his girlfriend called 911. Williams fought with the man, giving him a dislocated finger in the melee, and broke away, running out of the house and up the street. The man chased him, and Windsor police soon arrived. Williams had gotten into his car and was trying to drive off, but police stopped him.
Williams had the woman’s cash and credit cards on him, which he had stolen from the car. The antiques he had carefully set aside were left in the garage, of course.
He was taken to the County Jail and booked for first degree residential burglary, robbery, and possession of burglary tools. His bail, though initially set at $1,000,000, was determined to be $500,000, with enhancements set for his likely additional charges of assault and battery on the homeowner. Williams had an earlier run in with police on January 9, when he was arrested for drug charges and a failure to appear warrant. At the time he was listed as a resident of an apartment in Cloverdale, but his most recent arrest lists him as a transient.
