Defendant pleads not guilty to MI burglary and others

A 21-year-old Seattle man pleaded not guilty to a string of burglaries that targeted professional athletes, including one at the Mercer Island home of Seattle Mariners player Julio Rodriguez on May 1, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office.

Court documents note that the defendant, Earl Henderson Riley IV, attended his June 30 morning arraignment at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent and it lasted eight minutes. He remains in King County Jail in Seattle on $1 million bail.

At the arraignment, DPA Jennifer Phillips represented the state of Washington and Zachary Stout Brusseau and Dan Pelka represented Riley, according to court documents.

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Next up is an omnibus pre-trial hearing on July 14, and his trial is set for Aug. 25.

“In line with court rules, defendants are not required to attend (omnibus hearings) if they are represented by a defense attorney,” said Casey McNerthney, director of communications of the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. “Defendants are innocent until proven guilty in court.”

As noted in a previous Reporter story, the other burglaries that Riley is charged with were at Seattle Mariner Luis Castillo’s home in Issaquah; former Seattle Seahawk Richard Sherman’s home in Maple Valley (also first-degree robbery); and Los Angeles Dodger Blake Snell’s home in Edmonds. Riley was also charged with a Renton burglary case that didn’t involve a professional athlete, according to McNerthney.

On MI, Seattle Reign FC player Jordyn Huitema — who was sharing the home with Rodriguez — was alone inside the residence, heard intruders inside and called 911, according to a previous Reporter story. Rodriguez was away from the home on a M’s roadtrip.

In court documents, Huitema said she applied her body weight to halt one of the suspects from opening the door to the main bedroom bathroom where she barricaded herself. Suspects stole more than $194,000 in high-end purses and jewelry before fleeing the residence.

Documents read, “She heard one male voice ask, ‘Are you guys good?’” prior to their exit. Suspects carried what appeared to be a frequency jammer and left behind a can of bear spray, according to documents, which also note that three suspects were captured on Rodriguez’s home video surveillance system.

Moments later, one Mercer Island Police Department officer spotted the suspects’ vehicle and another officer teamed up for an attempted traffic stop on the speedy jeep. One officer heard two gunshots fired from the vehicle, which eventually got away.

Twenty-four days later, Seattle police booked Riley — who is believed to be the ringleader of the burglary group — into the South Correctional Entity jail in Des Moines for his outstanding Washington State Department of Corrections violations.

King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion said in a press release that her office worked for weeks on multiple search warrants that led to the filing of the felony charges.

“This case is a good example of the hard work that law enforcement, working alongside the King County Prosecutor’s Office, are engaged in every single day,” Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Gary Ernsdorff said in a press release. “We didn’t treat this case any differently than many of the other cases we see of a similar nature.”