Duo gets 15 years for string of Corbin break-ins, thefts

Special Judge Jerry Winchester sentenced two Corbin men to 15 years in prison and ordered them to pay $6,025 in total restitution Tuesday morning in connection with a 16-day crime spree last year where they burglarized several local businesses and then got on the six o’clock news and confessed to it.

James David Day, 20, and James Douglas Sprinkles, 19, pled guilty on May 26 to nine counts of third-degree burglary.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble said that he was pleased with the sentence.

"It is one of those things where two kids, who are obviously misdirected, just went out there and repeatedly burglarized," Trimble said. "It is hard to say about people, who do something like that.

"I’m not sure any amount of prison time is going to change their thinking. I would hope that it would. Maybe after five or six or seven years in prison, they will look at things differently."

The duo will be eligible for parole after serving 20 percent of their sentence, and have already served about a year in jail.

Trimble said that one of the considerations the parole board considers is the number of convictions.

"These kind of broke the bank on their first offense," he said. "I think that will lean any parole considerations to a longer service."

During the June 11, 2010 jailhouse interview with WKYT reporter Phil Pendleton, both men admitted to the allegations and claimed their efforts were for a good cause, which was to help Day’s fiancé with a medical condition. They have since broken up, and Day was unsure of what her condition is.

They also admitted to consuming much of the alcohol taken from Vittorinos.

Both sort of apologized during the interview for "bothering the community." Sprinkles said that he wasn’t sorry for what he did though.

Both said during the interview that they would do it again.

Winchester presided over the case after Circuit Judge Dan Ballou recused himself on Aug. 2, but not before giving the two young men an earful first.

Ballou ordered both men not to say a word, told them that he wanted his $5 knife back that says "Marines" on it, and then ordered them out of his courtroom.

Among the places broken into from May 22 through June 6, 2010, were Corbin Barber Shop, Roberta’s Market, Forest Bowling Lanes, Vittorinos Cucina Italian Restaurant, Contours Gym, Joy’s Kuntry Kookin, and the Kentucky Probation and Parole Office.
Ballou’s wife, Angie, is a probation and parole officer and the knife was apparently taken from her office during the break-in.
Court records haven’t indicated whether Ballou ever got his knife back.