BETHEL – An Idaho man incarcerated in Massachusetts on burglary charges will be extradited to Maine, after DNA evidence linked him to a 2012 burglary in Bethel, Oxford County Chief Deputy Hart Daley said in a press release Thursday.
Daley said James Radler of Idaho was recently indicted by an Oxford County grand jury on charges of burglary, theft and criminal mischief.
“On Oct. 18, 2012, Deputy Matthew Noyes of the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office responded to an alarm at Mt. Mann Jewelers in Bethel,” Daley said in the press release. Noyes discovered the glass entry door had been shattered with a rock, and that nearly $10,000 had been taken, he said.
“During their investigation, police officers found a small tissue near the shattered glass,” Daley continued, “and after sending it to the Maine State Police Crime Lab and performing a National Database Search, they discovered that the DNA on the tissue belonged to Radler.
Daley said Radler has active arrest warrants in Washington state for probation violation from a charge of forgery, an arrest warrant in New Hampshire for a nonresidential burglary, and one from Idaho for a parole violation from a charge of forgery.
Radler has previous convictions for theft, forgery, robbery, burglary, eluding police and fraud, Daley said.
“An Internet search of ‘James Radler’ provides several 2013 newspaper articles, advising that Radler has been suspected of a ‘cross country jewel theft spree’ with a ‘smash and grab’ MO,” Daley said.
Radler is incarcerated in Essex County, Mass., on burglary charges.
Daley said that the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office has obtained an arrest warrant for Radler and will extradite him to Maine.
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