A Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Thursday sentenced a suspected serial burglar to additional jail time for violating the terms of court-supervised release that followed prison terms for burglary and weapons possession.
Anthony Rauda, 42, was ordered to serve 180 days in County jail for being caught with a gun and ammunition. Rauda was given 130 days credit for the time he's already been in jail since his arrest near Malibu Creek State Park in October.
Rauda was brought into a downtown LA court room strapped to a wheeled chair with a mesh "spit-guard" over his head.
In late November, Rauda was sentenced to 160 days for violating the terms of his post-release-conviction-supervision, or PRCS, by being arrested by LA County Sheriff's detectives as a result of the serial burglary investigation. That sentence and the new sentence will be served simultaneously, the court said.
LA County Sheriff's Major Crimes Bureau detectives caught Rauda in a wilderness area north of the park Oct. 10 after a series of unusual early-morning break-ins, during which an armed, masked burglar stole food from a number of buildings in the area.
Major Crimes and Homicide Bureau detectives have been investigating whether Rauda could also be responsible for a series of seemingly-random shootings in the same area over the last two years, including the killing of camper Tristan Beaudette in June.
No new criminal charges have been filed in those cases.
During Thursday's hearing a Sheriff's detective testified that when Rauda was arrested he had the rifle and two loaded 9mm magazines in his backpack, along with a plastic bag filled with additional live rounds.
The armed, masked man on the security video became the focus of an intensive wilderness manhunt after an early-morning burglary Sept. 30 at a construction office near the intersection of Las Virgenes and Mulholland Highway.
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Security cameras captured video of a masked man with a rifle slung over his left shoulder prying open a window and climbing inside. NBC News obtained still images from that video that showed the burglar was wearing a battery-powered headlamp and tactical-style clothing. Investigators also told NBC4 that food was stolen, but valuables including cash were left behind.
The break-in was similar to several other food thefts in the same area, authorities said, leading detectives to consider whether the burglar was hiding out somewhere in the brush-covered hills of Malibu.
The gun seen on the security video also raised questions about whether the burglar could be responsible for a some of the seemingly random shootings reported in the same area over the last year, including the killing of Beaudette, who was shot while he slept next to his 2- and 4-year-old daughters in a closed tent at Malibu Creek State Park.
