Brothers plead guilty to multiple home break-ins
Detectives followed pair after one released on bail
Brothers who steal together may get to stay together – for an extended period of time.
Spokane brothers Donald G. Myhren, 31, and 27-year-old Dustin J. Myhren pleaded guilty Tuesday to a wide swath of home break-ins across Spokane County that included the theft of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, a firearm and other loot. Twice, authorities said, homeowners who confronted the burglars were threatened at gunpoint as the brothers fled.
Detectives, who began following the brothers at one point, tied them to a string of residential burglaries in early 2012 following their arrests. It appears that the elder brother may have passed on his illicit trade after getting out of prison for the same activity, Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Andi Duggan said.
“Hopefully, we are done with these guys for a while,” Duggan said after the brothers pleaded guilty.
The brothers indicated they’d like to be housed together in state prison.
The crime spree started after Donald Myhren – in jail waiting to be sentenced on a 2011 residential burglary conviction – posted a $75,000 bond and was released from jail in January 2012. Myhren admitted committing 10 additional felony crimes in February and March that year, including five residential burglaries, one first-degree burglary, the theft of a firearm, attempted second-degree robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Duggan said she will request a sentence of 95 months in prison for Donald Myhren, followed by a 95-month term of community custody in which Myhren will be required to go through drug counseling. If he fails or commits a new crime, he would serve the whole sentence, putting his potential incarceration at nearly 16 years.
His younger brother, Dustin, had been working and doing well until his older brother’s earlier release from prison, Duggan said.
With a previous record of one felony conviction for drugs, Dustin Myhren faces far less time after pleading guilty to first-degree burglary, residential burglary and first-degree trafficking in stolen property. Duggan said she will ask Superior Court Judge Sam Cozza to send the younger Myhren to prison for four years when both are sentenced on July 18 at 3 p.m.
The brothers were arrested on March 31, 2012, and have been in Spokane County Jail since then.