Robbinsville man sentenced for past, current crimes
Robbinsville – A 52-year-old Robbinsville man with a long criminal history from his youth was convicted of theft-related felonies from last year and will spend up to 15 ½ years in prison.
A jury took two hours to reach a guilty verdict against Bryan Aaron Berryman for felony breaking and entering, felony larceny, felony possession of stolen goods, and felony conspiracy to break and enter and larceny.
The same jury was then asked to determine whether Berryman was guilty of habitual breaking/entering, a so-called “3 strikes” status that would lead to a longer prison sentence. It took the jury two minutes to decide to convict Berryman on that charge, as well.
Berryman was sentenced to 11-15 ½ years in state prison. He was taken to Piedmont Correctional Institution in Salisbury on Friday.
He plans to appeal his conviction, he told Superior Court Judge Jesse Caldwell following his sentencing.
“The ability to target repeat offenders is an important tool in our toolbox,” District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch said in a press release. “It allows us to relieve communities of men and women who have chronically sticky fingers.”
Berryman was represented by defense attorney Rich Cassady. The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney James Moore.
Jury selection for the trial was completed late Monday, July 11 and final arguments were given the morning of Wednesday, July 13.
Plea of innocence
The incident occurred on April 19, 2021, at the Beech Creek Road residence of then-Chief Deputy Dennis Crisp.
A neighbor, Maria Maready, testified that she saw two men walking back and forth on Beech Creek Road near Crisp’s property before one of them – the younger of the two men – disappeared behind a two-bay garage on Crisp’s property.
He reappeared a few minutes later carrying a weedeater, chainsaw and tool box.
Meanwhile, the older of the two men continued walking up Beech Creek Road.
At some point, one or both of the men saw Maready observing them and discarded the stolen items in the ditch in front of her house. They continued walking up the road as she called the Sheriff’s Department’s main phone number to report an apparent crime.
Sheriff Jerry Crisp responded in his patrol car and a deputy responded in hers, with lights and sirens activated. Once they arrived, Maready told them that the men she had seen had walked up the road.
Crisp and the deputy drove up Beech Creek Road and found Berryman and Joseph Brian Pressley, a 32-year-old resident of Marble. The two did not flee, were not carrying weapons and agreed to ride in a patrol car back down the hill to be viewed by Maready to see if they were the men she saw outside Crisp’s house.
Maready looked at the two seated in the back seat of the patrol car and said they were the ones she’d seen earlier. They were arrested and charged.
Pressley remains in custody at the Graham County Jail and faces charges stemming from the theft from Dennis Crisp’s garage. Pressley himself has a long criminal history of larcenies and breaking/entering. He was not called to testify at Berryman’s trial.
‘3 strikes’
Berryman’s criminal record begins when he was just 17, with misdemeanor convictions of tampering with a motor vehicle, larceny over $200, being a minor in possession of liquor, operating a motor vehicle without a license and disorderly conduct. He had his first felony conviction when he was 20.
He continued to get in trouble with the law through the 1990s, interrupted only by his time in jail or prison.
He was last released from prison in January 2015, after serving just over 21 years for a long list of larceny-related charges dating to the 1990s. Until his arrest in April 2021, Berryman has no criminal charges on record since 1993, according to N.C. Department of Corrections records.
In order to obtain a conviction for being a habitual breaking and entering offender, the prosecution had to identify three unrelated and non-overlapping previous convictions. For Berryman, those were in 1988, 1991, and 1994 – all from Gaston County, when he was between the ages of 18-24.
The defense attorney pointed out that Berryman should not be punished for the crimes of his youth and asked the judge for a lighter sentence of 78-106 months.
Berryman did not testify at his trial last week, but after the jury delivered its guilty verdicts and before the judge laid down the sentence, Berryman was given the chance to make a statement.
Berryman apologized, but added that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He said he didn’t know Pressley was going to steal from Dennis Crisp’s garage and that Pressley could confirm that if he was asked.
“I don’t do stuff like that,” Berryman said. “I didn’t know that boy.”
The judge consolidated some of the charges to give Berryman a slightly shorter sentence of 132-183 months, and said he was recommending that Berryman be eligible for any treatment, education and vocational programs the prison system has available.
“This is your time,” Judge Caldwell said, advising Berryman to use it wisely.
Berryman, dressed in jeans and T-shirt with a ball cap tucked in his waistband in the small of his back, attempted to hug his girlfriend, who was seated behind him in the otherwise empty audience section.
Berryman had been free on bail, which was revoked upon sentencing.
Jail Administrator Marlon Jackson did not permit him to make physical contact with his girlfriend. Berryman then removed his watch and other items, before he was taken back to be processed into the jail.