Rose Santos Sentenced To 21 Years In Prison For Burglaries

Lowell Beaudoin -- one of Rose Santos's many victims -- listed some of the things she did during a crime spree in which .

She and her codefendants took Beaudoin's mother's collections of coins and antique perfume bottles. They took his furniture and sold it to a consignment shop.

She stole and resold a photographer's cameras.

She even stole a diabetic's syringes so she could use them to inject herself with heroin, Beaudoin told Judge Vincent Culotta during Santos's sentencing Monday.

All totaled, Santos and her codefendants took more than $50,000 worth of possessions from their victims.

"Only God, you and () know what else was taken," Beaudoin concluded.

Santos, 49, of Geneva, in Lake County Court of Common Pleas in April.

On Monday, Culotta punished her by sentencing her to 21 years in prison.

Her attorney, Assistant Public Defender Aaron Schwartz, said that Santos regretted her actions and tried to make it right by cooperating with investigators.

"She wanted to clear her conscience and, in whatever small way she could, help the victims recover their property," he said.

Santos cried as she apologized at the hearing. She told Culotta that she was glad she was finally arrested because "I knew the pain was over."

"I've taken so much from so many people and now I've taken my life away," she told Culotta, before adding, "but I know the consequences."

Culotta said if Santos wanted the pain to end, she could have just turned herself into police and asked for help with her addiction.

He added that Santos' remorse, whether genuine or feigned, did not make her any less likely to recommit a crime once she was released.

Before sentencing her to prison and ordering her to pay more than $50,000 in restitution, he said, "The sheer number of burglaries cannot be ignored."

Santos and two of her codefendants, Robert Nelson and Rodney Williams, .

Police had staked out Stockbridge Road because of previous break-ins in the neighborhood, police said.

When another break-in happened, police stopped a Buick LeSabre with Nelson and Williams in it. They also stopped Santos, who was walking on foot nearby.

Police found jewelry that had been taken from the house on Santos and in the LeSabre, police said.

Other law enforcement departments, including Madison Township Police, investigated Santos's burglary ring.