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Farmington • A pair of men involved in a safe heist that robbed a man of his life savings have each been sentenced to a year in jail.
Wayne Jerry Clark, 24, and his cousin, Joshua Cameron Watts, 20, were both sentenced Monday in 2nd District Court.
Last September, Clark, Watts and two other men pulled off the heist at the West Bountiful home of Gary Turley. In the end, police say, the men walked out with more than $207,000 in cash, jewelry and other valuables.
"I am still afraid to be in my own house," Turley told Judge David Connors on Tuesday. "I'm thinking of just letting it go to foreclosure and giving it up. It's not a happy or safe place for me any more."
Clark, who pleaded guilty to second-degree felony theft by receiving stolen property, apologized to Turley "for any suffering or harm" he caused.
Tara Haynes, Clark's attorney, said the man had struggled with marijuana and methamphetamine use. The defense attorney argued a shorter jail sentence would allow the man to begin making restitution payments sooner.
A restitution hearing was set for June 15.
"I know I'm not going to get much of it back," Turley said. "But I'm just ready to move on and be done with it."
Watts pleaded guilty earlier this year to second-degree felony theft, admitting only to taking $6,000 to keep quiet about the burglary.
Connors ordered both Clark and Watts to complete 150 hours of community service while serving a 36-month probation.
Connors said that while Watts was the youngest of the men involved in the crime, he also had an extensive juvenile record.
"If this kind of charge had been sentenced in federal court, you'd be spending 15 years in a federal prison," Connors said.
Connors had previously sentenced another man, 41-year-old Steven Kent Hogge, to 180 days in jail after Hogge admitted his role in the heist and helped police to find the roughly $29,000 he had buried in his backyard. Officials say Turley's jewelry has been pawned and the remaining cash had been spent within a few days of the September burglary.
Police say it was Turley's own daughter and his new son-in-law who told Watts and Clark about the 250-pound safe and the man's 20 years worth of savings inside.
Watts, the son-in-law's brother, and Clark, a cousin, picked a day when Turley was gone from the house. According to court documents, Hogge and Watts loaded the safe onto a dolly and wheeled it to a van as Clark served as a lookout.
Another man, Epifanio Anthony Lee Welch, has also been charged in connection with the heist. His case is pending.