GLENDALE : Man Pleads Guilty to Burglary Charges

A 30-year-old man has pleaded guilty to charges that he burglarized 11 Glendale, La Crescenta and San Gabriel homes while posing as a window washer, officials said.

Gary Darnell Williams of Los Angeles also pleaded no contest to one felony count of sexually assaulting an elderly woman during an Aug. 15 residential burglary in Glendale, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Walt Lewis.

Williams entered the pleas Wednesday before Pasadena Superior Court Judge Jack Tso, who sentenced the defendant to 21 years in state prison, Lewis said. He could be released on parole within 11 years.

The Los Angeles man, who had previously been convicted of a Santa Monica burglary in May, 1991, did not make a statement to the judge, Lewis said.

His public defender, Jackie Zorich, declined to comment on the case.

Williams was charged with 11 felony counts of residential burglary and one felony count of sexual battery after his Aug. 23 arrest, ending a two-year hunt for the so-called “window washer” burglar.

Police investigators believe that the suspect was responsible for at least 50 home burglaries between December, 1992, and August, 1993, in Glendale, Montrose, La Crescenta, Burbank, Pasadena and South Pasadena.

Williams mainly targeted victims more than 65 years old. He told them that he was a window washer sent by the county or the social services department to gain entrance to their homes, police said.

Seven of the 11 cases he was charged with involved losses of less than $1,000, said Glendale Police Investigator Steve Carey.