The Washoe County District Attorney’s Office Major Violator Unit (MVU) says they have secured a lengthy sentence in a prosecution involving multiple counts of burglary, identity theft and grand larceny committed by a defendant with a lengthy record of prior felony crimes and convictions.
They say the case involved multiple property crimes of theft and fraud committed on various dates and connected to numerous victims throughout Washoe County.
Officials say this prosecution was a joint effort by this office’s MVU prosecutors and detectives with the Northern Nevada Repeat Offender Program (ROP).
They say 37-year-old Brian Martin Malone from Sparks pled guilty in September, 2019, to one count of burglary, two counts of identity theft, one count of establishing a financial forgery lab, one count of possession of a document or personal identifying information to establish false status or Identity and one count of grand larceny of a motor vehicle.
Officials say Malone has a history of felony convictions including robbery, possession of a firearm, burglary and drug offenses and was sentenced in this case to a maximum term of 45 years in prison.
They say based on the sentence, 18 years must be served before parole eligibility begins.
The case began on April 17, 2018, when ROP Detectives began investigating Malone as a suspect in several cases of fraud and property crimes that had occurred in 2017 and 2018.
Officials say after a lengthy investigation, Malone was tied to several vehicle thefts and burglaries, grand larcenies, and a storage unit burglary committed in Reno and Sparks, as well as the fraudulent use of documents and identifying information taken from those offenses.
They say over the course of the investigation, ROP detectives were able to identify dozens of victims and locate video evidence implicating Malone in several of the crimes.
Officials say Malone was arrested in June 2018 after a brief standoff.
