Skip to main content

Grand jury indicts church burglary suspect

By Howard B. Owens

A Batavia man allegedly caught in the act of burglarizing a local church and later accused of trying to escape from jail was indicted by a Genesee County Grand Jury today on seven felony counts and four misdemeanors.

John Anthony Cabrera, 22, is charged with two counts of burglary, 3rd, one count of grand larceny, 3rd, and two counts of grand larceny, 4th, and escape, 1st.

The highest felony charge is a Class D felony.

The misdemeanor charges include three counts of criminal mischief and petit larceny.

Cabrera is accused of breaking into St. Paul's Church at 31 Washington Ave., Batavia, on July 21 and stealing three credit cards and $6,095 in personal checks, $354.36 in cash, $1,160 in gift cards, various keys, checkbooks and documents from the church.

The escape charge comes from alleged escape attempt -- Cabrera was reportedly found outside of the confined jail area, but still in the same building, technically constituting the alleged escape -- on July 24.

The city suffered a series of church burglaries in the weeks prior to Cabrera's arrest, but Cabrera has not been charged in any other break-ins.

Detectives reportedly gathered some DNA evidence at some crime scenes, but no word yet on whether Cabrera can be linked to the other burglaries.

Authentically Local