Two Pennsylvania men were each sentenced to nine years in prison on burglary charges for posing as construction workers and breaking into a Valley Stream home, stealing more than $1 million in property, including two Rolex watches and several legally owned firearms, in 2023, according to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly.
Dejuan Michaels, 31, and Daiquan Smith, 30, and Tehron Green, 45, pleaded guilty on Sept. 22 to one count of burglary and one count of grand larceny.
Michaels and Smith were each sentenced on Friday, Oct. 31, to nine years in prison. Donnelly said she recommended a 12-year sentence for each. Green is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 3.
Donnelly said that, according to the charges, the three men and a fourth unapprehended person, dressed in construction gear, arrived at the Valley Stream home after the homeowner left for work on Sept. 23, 2023.
They broke a rear window of the home and climbed inside, and over an hour later, one of the people came back out of the window and left, returning roughly 30 minutes later with a hand truck, the DA said.
They brought the hand truck into the home and all four men were later captured on surveillance video from outside the home, leaving the residence with two safes on the hand truck containing cash, firearms, watches and other property, totaling a value of approximately $1 million, Donnelly said.
An investigation revealed that Michaels had purchased a hand truck from a home improvement store in Elmont during the course of the burglary and a review of the cellphone records also recovered photos of Michaels and Smith posing in a Pennsylvania warehouse with cash, the victim’s watches and the victim’s firearms on the same day of the burglary, the DA said.
Green also appeared in the background of one of the warehouse photos. Michaels and Smith were photographed wearing the same clothing captured on surveillance video outside the victim’s home, Donnelly said.
Michaels and Smith were arrested in Delaware and Pennsylvania, respectively, in 2024, while Green was arrested in March in Pennsylvania.
