The two men arrested in connection with the theft of Lance Armstrong's bike have pleaded no contest in Sacramento Superior Court, and one of them is headed to state prison for three years.
Lee Monroe Crider, 40, pleaded no contest June 1 to second-degree burglary and grand theft. According to court documents, he will be sentenced to the three-year prison term when he returns to court Monday. He will be sentenced by Judge Laurie M. Earl.
Crider's co-defendant, Dung Hoang Le, 33, pleaded no contest June 1 to a misdemeanor count of receiving stolen property. Le already has been sentenced to three years of probation and 90 days in jail, to be served on the sheriff's work project.
Deputy District Attorney Richard Ilharreguy declined to comment on the case.
The $10,000, black-and-yellow Trek time-trial bicycle belonging to seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong was stolen after he raced in the Feb. 14 Sacramento prologue to the Amgen Tour of California.
It was one of three bicycles lifted from a rental trailer parked in the alley behind the Marriott Residence Inn at L and 15th streets.
According to a police report in the court file, Crider admitted to detectives that he pried the padlock off the trailer with the metal kickstand from his own bike. Then he locked the time trial bike to a tree, went back to the trailer and removed the other two bikes belonging to Armstrong's Team Astana before coming back for the Trek.
The report said Crider, a longtime thief with a 21-year criminal history in Sacramento, sold the bike to Le for $200.
It was Le who then returned the bicyle to the police. The police report said he had the bike in his car when the Elk Grove resident picked up his wife from work three days after it was reported missing.
The report said his wife told him, "That's Lance's bike. You better turn it in."
At first Le told police he bought the bike in Meadowview for $1,500 and that he was giving it back on his own. Police said they processed the bike for forensic evidence, returned it to Team Astana – and then focused the investigation on Le, who became "argumentative and uncooperative" when they asked him more pointed questions.
A search warrant of Le's cell phone and computer records turned up a telephone number for Crider, who was on parole for a 2007 bicycle theft near California State University, Sacramento, the records showed.
Phone records showed four conversations between Crider and Le during the two days after the Armstrong bike theft.
A search of Crider's residence in Sacramento turned up a red mountain bike with $7,000 worth of components from a road racing bicycle. Crider told police he was working at the time at a laundromat, making $6 an hour "under the table."
The police report said there was "no logical reason to have road racing bike components on a mountain bike." The report also said that given his income, "it didn't make sense" for Crider to have that kind of merchandise.
Crider told investigators he spent $500 for the parts and that he didn't know they came off one of the pilfered Team Astana bikes, according to the police report.
Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.
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