SAN JOSE – Back on Jan 19, 2014, a burglar entered an unoccupied home located at 4800 block of Trego Drive in San Jose. The owners of the home later reported the burglary to San Jose Police. The residents of the home told responding SJPD officers that a neighbor reported seeing that their garage door was open, even though they were not at home. It is believed that the intruder gained entry through the side garage door that had been left unlocked.
Officers at the scene discovered that their private office had been rummaged through, however it appeared that only a few jewelry items had been taken, but nothing else appeared to have been removed. The resident said, “A California driver’s license and a handwritten note had been left on her desk in the office that was not there before.”
The burglar, identified as 45-year-old Jason Carl Smith, had left his driver’s license stapled to a piece of paper with a hand written note, which read, “Please excuse the mess as I am in a hurry.” He added “Took, not thief, but know Leo Dove well and live with him on Ross in camper.” Smith also wrote, “Leo Dove said this chain is for me.” It was reported that a pendant with a green stone and diamond bracelet with a “dove” was taken.
A middle latent print was collected at the scene along with several other prints, including the right middle hand print, were complete enough allowing investigating officers to run them through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) to find a direct match. Once the fingerprint analysis was submitted, the system returned with information identifying Smith as the person matching the print.
Further investigation revealed that a red Jaguar that was parked in the garage had the contents of the glove box removed. It is suspected that Smith was also looking for jewelry or other items, such as lose change, which may have been taken.
The victims in this case had no idea who Smith was and had never met him before. Other items located at the scene were a pair of house keys that did not belong to the residence. It is also believed that Smith left his keys in the vehicle during his search for other valuable items.
Jason Carl Smith was arrested under PC 459-460, First degree burglary. The next court date for this case has been scheduled for Feb 14, 2014 at 1:30 in Dept 34. In the meantime, the Fremont Police reported that Smith was arrested just a week ago, on December 16. He was arrested at the Fremont Hospital on Sundale, and charged once again with burglary. Details of that incident were not available.
