Spokane car thief could spend five years in prison

A “career criminal” and prolific Spokane car thief could spend five years in an Idaho prison for driving a stolen Kia across the state line – a penalty that a Kootenai County prosecutor described Monday as a rare but warranted sentence.

First District Judge Fred Gibler sentenced Stephen J. Sincere, 51, to a mandatory 2 ½ years in prison in addition to a possibility of another 2 ½ years. He denied Sincere’s request for probation and the opportunity to serve time in Washington for other car theft convictions and receive already ordered substance abuse and mental health treatment.

“Rehabilitation is a factor, but given your criminal history the larger factor is the protection of society and deterrence,” Gibler said.

By the judge’s count, Sincere had at least 25 arrests, largely for auto thefts, in at least six states, including Washington, during the past 30 years. He received felony convictions in at least 11 of those cases, Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Jim Reierson said.

This was believed to be Sincere’s first arrest in Idaho.

Sincere put his criminal record even more poignantly, telling the judge he had a “buffet table full of sentences.”

“I need some kind of good, swift kick in the butt,” Sincere told the judge, adding that he needs help with substance abuse and that he has psychological issues.

Sincere pleaded guilty to charges of being a persistent offender and felony grand theft for driving the Kia, which was stolen from the Spokane Kia dealership in Liberty Lake. He was arrested Nov. 27 after Post Falls police cameras, which read license plates on Interstate 90, recognized the Kia as stolen, Reierson said.

The arrest came 12 days after Sincere crashed a 1996 Lincoln Town Car in Spokane Valley. That car, stolen from the same dealership, was severely damaged and Sincere ended up in the hospital with minor injuries, according to a Dec. 18 affidavit.

Charges in the Lincoln theft are pending.

The report states that dealership employees noticed a suspicious male hanging around the day the Lincoln went missing. The employees later identified Sincere, and a Liberty Lake officer found a black bag in the trunk of the car that had papers, including Washington Department of Corrections forms, with Sincere’s name on them.

In court Monday, Liberty Lake police detective Ray Bourgeois told Gibler that in a December interview at the Kootenai County jail Sincere admitted that he knew both the Kia and Lincoln were stolen but chose to drive them anyway.

Sincere was believed to be living at an Otis Orchards halfway house the month before the Lincoln crash, after spending 18 months in a Washington prison for pleading guilty to stealing and crashing a new Ford Mustang GT from Empire Ford and attempting to elude police in April 2006.

Other court records show that the following month, in May 2006, Sincere allegedly stole a 2001 Mercedes Benz from the Spokane dealership and crashed it as he attempted to escape police.

Kootenai County Defense Attorney Anne Taylor argued that Sincere should get probation for the Idaho charge instead of prison time because he is already sentenced to substance abuse programs in Washington in connection with previous theft convictions.

Yet Gibler ruled there was no guarantee what would happen in Washington and that Sincere needs to have accountability in Idaho.

Reierson said that often car thieves receive light sentences, and they rarely serve prison time, especially in Washington.

“For a career criminal this is probably the longest sentence I’ve seen,” Reierson said after the hearing. “But these are unusual circumstances. There was no guarantee what Washington would do with this guy.”