A local grocery store owner said Friday that Alzheimer's disease might be to blame for why he broke into a house last year and stole a vacuum cleaner.
Don Tate, 82, pleaded guilty Friday to charges of breaking and entering and petit larceny. He also admitted to a charge of trespassing and paid a $500 fine for it.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Carrie Webster approved a deal Tate made with prosecutors, which suspends any possible jail sentence for two years.
If Tate spends the next two years without getting into trouble, the felony breaking and entering charge will be dismissed.
Tate, who owns several Fas Chek and Save-A-Lot grocery stores, said at his arraignment last year that he had bought the vacuum cleaner at an estate sale at the house but forgot to take it home. After trying to call several times to make arrangements to get the vacuum cleaner, Tate said last year that he decided to go to the house and retrieve it.
He admitted Friday that he entered the house through a window and that when he went to the estate sale, he didn't have any money with him and, therefore, didn't purchase the vacuum.
"I don't know if it is Alzheimer's or what, but I went back up and took the sweeper," Tate said Friday.
The next day, Tate went back to the house and stole an extension cord, which he found outside, he admitted Friday.
"Might I add there is video of him. Very clear and vivid video," Tate's lawyer Ed Rebrook said, laughing.
As part of the deal Tate made, he's not allowed back at the house he broke into. The house is located at 914 Chappel Road and is just down the street from Tate's own home. He's also banned from attending any estate sales held by Sort My Space, which hosted the sale Tate attended last year.
Assistant Kanawha Prosecutor Monica Schwartz told the judge Friday that she has been in contact with the owners of the home Tate broke into and that they were OK with the deal.
Tate also is not to go back to the Save-A-Lot store in St. Albans, Schwartz said Friday, referencing the trespassing charge.
The man has been banned from that store since its grand opening about four years ago, the prosecutor said, and then described an incident in which Tate allegedly spread deer repellent outside of the store before it was set to open to the public.
"There was a horrible stench," Schwartz said.
The store's owner has video evidence of Tate spreading the substance, according to the prosecutor. Tate never faced any charges over that alleged incident or a time when he planted a banana peel inside the St. Albans store, out of the range of any surveillance cameras, Schwartz said.
"He slipped on the banana ... he didn't sue," she said.
Earlier this month, an employee of the St. Albans store recognized Tate and knew he was banned from being in the store, according to the prosecutor. He picked up an apple inside the store and walked through the store eating the fruit, she said. After being told he was banned and must leave, Tate paid for the apple and left.
Halfway through the plea hearing Friday, after Tate said that he didn't remember being banned from the St. Albans store, Schwartz and Rebrook decided to change Tate's guilty plea to a Kennedy plea. A Kennedy plea doesn't require a defendant to admit guilt. Tate wrote a letter of apology to the store's owner, the prosecutor said.
"If Mr. Tate hasn't been evaluated by a trained mental health professional, that needs to be done," Webster said toward the end of Friday's hearing.
The judge said to Tate that the items he admitted to stealing were of minimal value and were taken without explanation.
"You don't appear needy," the judge said to Tate. "The vacuum, even if it was a Dyson, at the estate sale, it would be no more than $50."
In 2010, Tate was charged with a misdemeanor count of stalking after Jackson County authorities caught him allegedly spying on his ex-girlfriend outside her house on U.S. 33 near Ripley. Tate and the woman had been in a dispute over the house. In that case, Tate allegedly told deputies he owned the house and had come out to investigate reports that methamphetamine was being made inside it. Police said he admitted to hiding in the weeds as authorities were looking for him. A few months later, Jackson County officials said they would dismiss the charge against him if he had no more contact with the victim.
As he left the courtroom Friday Tate said that he had "embarrassed my family."
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.