Crew members accused of breaking into 9 houses last summer plead guilty
Jeffrey Arthur Schuh, Jeffrey Aron Schuh, Quang Nguyen, Stephen Colwell
Courtesy of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office
All four members of the Dexter-based crew police say broke into 10 houses last summer have now pleaded guilty to home invasion charges, court records indicate.
Jeffery Arthur Schuh, 54, and his son Jeffrey Aron Schuh, 20, both of Dexter, were the latest to enter pleas last week.
On Wednesday, Jeffery Aron Schuh, pleaded guilty to 16 counts of second-degree home invasion and two counts of stealing a financial transaction device like a credit card, according to court records. Charges of safe breaking and first-degree home invasion will be dismissed. He will likely get four to 15 years in a state prison per a sentencing agreement, police said.
That same day, his father pleaded guilty to five counts of second-degree home invasion and two counts of stealing a financial transaction device. Two counts of first-degree home invasion will be dismissed. His agreement calls for a prison sentence of two to 15 years.
A third member of the crew, Quang Nguyen, 19, of Ypsilanti Township, pleaded guilty to 18 counts of second-degree home invasion and two counts of stealing a financial transaction device on March 27. Charges of safe breaking and first-degree home invasion will be dropped. He is expected to serve as much as the younger Schuh, 4-15 years in prison.
The two Schuhs are scheduled to be sentenced on May 8, the same day as Steven Colwell, the 25-year-old Lima Township man who pleaded guilty to five counts of second-degree home invasion in November.
Colwell testified against his former crew in exchange for a lighter sentence. Police say his agreement includes a prison term of 2-15 years in prison -- two years less than Jeffrey Aron Schuh and Nguyen and one year less than older Schuh.
Nguyen is scheduled to be sentenced on April 24.
The crew broke into a total of nine houses in Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Township, Scio Township, Webster Township and Dexter Township, according to Cowell's testimony. He said the elder Schuh functioned as a lookout on three of the jobs. A wide range of items were taken, including foreign coins, two-dollar bills, equestrian trophies, jewelry, silver goblets, electronics, cash, a guitar and custom-made brass bullets.
John Counts covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at johncounts@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
meshit
Wed, Apr 17, 2013 : 4:18 a.m.
so glad to see the justice system work for once. My only complaint is that they were willing to give these guys a plea. They should've taken it to trial and nailed all of em with 20+ yr prison sentences. Also glad to see the pro-schuh/aiden group silent in the comment section for the first time. All I can say to them is HA!
CrimeVictim2012
Wed, Apr 17, 2013 : 2:31 a.m.
As one of the victims, I'm glad to have some closure on this case. The AA police, Washtenaw County Sheriff, and the prosecutor's office all did a great job. Lets hope that Aiden (Quang Nguyen) and the rest of the crew pay the victim restitution in a timely manner after their years in prison.
UpperDecker
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 1:02 p.m.
Did anyone of them admit to leaving their bowel movements in the toilet?
John Counts
Wed, Apr 17, 2013 : 12:35 p.m.
Prosecutors had plenty of other evidence ready for trial, huh7891, so I don't think that was necessary.
huh7891
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 11:58 p.m.
DNA match perhaps?
John Counts
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 2:40 p.m.
In general, suspects only have to plead guilty to specific charges in court. They do not have to admit to unchargeable offenses. This particular detail, which we have reported in past stories about this case, was brought up in court as just one small example linking a few of the home invasions.
lefty48197
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 11:03 a.m.
That is one ugly group.
Barzoom
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 10:40 a.m.
They'll be in jail just long enough to learn their trade better. Look for future news stories about this bunch.
Macabre Sunset
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 2:45 a.m.
These sentences are inappropriately short. Nothing is mentioned about restitution. And, given lenient parole rules, it's doubtful they'll learn anything other than that crime actually does pay quite nicely. Why plead these out? If they did what allegedly could easily be proved, it wouldn't have been that hard to gain convictions for first-degree home invasion. When we're reading these names again as charged with new crimes in 2016, we have our county's crack prosecuting team to thank. The sheriff's office must be staffed with true professionals to keep bothering with their jobs, given the lack of support from prosecutors and judges these days.
Doug
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 4:31 p.m.
Raise my taxes to keep criminals in prison and I'll never complain.
OhioStater
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 1:42 p.m.
Sad to say, but a lot of the criminals who do these types of activities know that if they're caught, they won't receive a long sentence. I'm actually surprised they could get a minimum of 4 years. (And yes, its pathetic that I'm surprised at 4 years.)
clownfish
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 12:41 p.m.
Cost/person to jail in Michigan: approx $35,000/year X 4 perps = 140,000/yr. How long of a sentence would you deem appropriate (beyond the 4-15 years) and how much in taxes are you willing to pay to keep them incarcerated for that period?
demistify
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 12:35 a.m.
One thing that has bothered me all along about the reporting of this story is why there is repeated reference to the perpetrators as a "crew". Were they on a boat? Whatever happened to that old-fashioned term "gang"?
John Counts
Wed, Apr 17, 2013 : 12:34 p.m.
The term "gang member," I would argue, has a completely different colloquial meaning these days, which is why it was avoided.
Doug
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 4:34 p.m.
Scum would by the best reference!
Ruth
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 12:48 p.m.
I agree that the use of the word "crew" was inappropriate. Crew is a neutral or positive word, not one to acknowledge a gang.
Relieved Citizen
Mon, Apr 15, 2013 : 11:52 p.m.
I've followed this story since the very beginning, even before they caught these guys. I can't believe its taken this long to put these criminals in a state prison. They obviously ARE guilty of these crimes or they wouldn't have pleaded as such. If I was charged with these types of crimes and this many for that matter, I would NEVER plead guilty. I would fight till the end to protect my rights, reputation and self respect. Also, I remember in an earlier article, there was a girl that replied to a comment and directly attacked the writer of the article by stating, "why would you listen to some dumb reporter that's only job is to try and ruin everyones career?" There was a guy that replied to that and asked them if they would be adult enough to suck up their pride and apologize to the "dumb reporter" when these scum bags were found guilty for their heinous crimes. So, I think it's time for the Tarah, Lisa, and Nicole (the girl that doth protested too much) to suck up their pride and admit to everyone, including the writer of this article, that they were DEAD WRONG. They also should be adults and acknowledge that everyone else was right in believing that these guys were guilty from the start. It's time to own up and eat the crow of your false statements.
meshit
Wed, Apr 17, 2013 : 4:25 a.m.
I agree, those girls need to step up and eat crow. They attacked a lot of people on here and now they need to woman up and apologize to everyone that they misled/offended.
Relieved Citizen
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 5:24 p.m.
Bluemax, what I meant was that I was surprised that the process took this long. IIRC they were all arrested back in September or early October. Saying that I couldn't believe that the judicial process took as long as it has to find these guys guilty for their crimes with the amount of overwhelming evidence--at least from what it looked like-- was both frustrating to me. I realize that this is how the system works, but that doesn't mean that I agree with it. Furthermore, it had nothing to do with my next statement. As for the next part of my comment, after reading it over I realize that I should've been more clear in my point. Basically I meant to say that if I were innocent of this many felonies with those implications I would NEVER enter a guilty plea bargain. Furthermore, I would fight it through till the end to protect my constitutional rights and my societal reputation, if that were even possible at that point. In other words, I was trying to make it a point to all of the supporters of these criminals to think before they start commenting on this article with radical conspiracy theories and rude sentiments to other posters and to the journalist that wrote the article--which is something they've done in previous instances. My apologies for the lack of clarity in my original post.
bluemax79
Tue, Apr 16, 2013 : 11:50 a.m.
I am confused, you complain about how long it took then reccomend that they should NEVER plead guilty. if not for the guilty plea it would have taken a lot longer to convict them.
John of Saline
Mon, Apr 15, 2013 : 10:17 p.m.
Well, it's nice to see a parent sharing his interests with his son.
A2M3
Mon, Apr 15, 2013 : 9:45 p.m.
The other Schuh as dropped kids. Did the crimes, now do the times!