BERKELEY — A Berkeley resident has been arrested and charged with a felony for allegedly strolling into an area episcopal church, ingesting the altar wine and serving to himself to some choir robes on his means out the door.
The suspect, a 34-year-old unsheltered man who was residing in Berkeley, was linked to the crime based mostly on eyewitness accounts and a DNA take a look at on the the unfinished bottle of altar wine carried out by police. He was charged with one depend of second-degree housebreaking and is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin in lieu of $5,000 bail.
The person was arrested Thursday on suspicion of housebreaking, a probation violation on a previous housebreaking conviction and possession of a managed substance. He's scheduled to go to courtroom for an arraignment listening to on Monday.
Authorities allege that final Nov. 6, an worker on the St. Clement’s Episcopal Church on Claremont Avenue in Berkeley seen the person leaving the church, wearing a pink cassock and white cotta. The person claimed he’d been given the robes and walked off.
Upon additional investigation, the worker found a half-empty bottle of altar wine nonetheless contained in the church.
It turned out the suspect was well-known to police and neighbors on higher Claremont Avenue. He’d been arrested in reference to prior burglaries within the space, was a suspect in seven space break-ins since 2020 and had a courtroom order banning him from being inside 100 yards of a close-by property, in accordance with courtroom information.
He was arrested in late November, however launched pending additional investigation. The Alameda County District Legal professional’s workplace filed a one-count felony criticism towards him on March 14.