PORT TOWNSEND – Niles Shroyer came to Port Townsend from California’s Bay Area to kick a drug habit and instead went to prison.
Shroyer, 21, was sentenced to six years in prison on Friday for his part in a methamphetamine-fueled burglary spree in Jefferson County in spring 2006.
In all, 66 homes and businesses were victimized.
As part of a plea agreement, Shroyer pleaded guilty to 23 counts of burglary and attempted burglary on July 27.
Also on July 27, Shroyer’s partner, former Port Townsend High School football star Austin Thacker, 19, pleaded guilty to five charges – second-degree burglary, residential burglary, possession of methamphetamine, theft of a firearm and first-degree theft – and was sentenced to 50 months in prison.
Now, both men are behind bars for a crime wave that plagued the communities of Port Townsend, Port Ludlow, Discovery Bay and Chimacum for several weeks more than a year ago.
“We had two young men heavily addicted to methamphetamine that were terrorizing not only a town but a community,” Jefferson County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Katherine Gulmert said to Superior Court Judge Craddock Verser before he delivered Shroyer’s six-year sentence.
Shroyer paid the full amount he owed to his victims with a $31,170.48 cashier’s check.
