SNOW HILL — A Falls Church, Va. man, arrested in June after entering a resort hotel penthouse, cooking and eating food, drinking wine and using a bed and hot tub, pleaded guilty this week in Worcester County Circuit Court to burglary and was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
Around 11:30 a.m. on June 22, Ocean City Police responded to the Days Inn on Baltimore Ave. for a reported burglary. OCPD officers learned a suspect later identified as Ludrwin Machado-Rivera, 24, had allegedly entered the hotel’s penthouse unit sometime the night before or in the early morning hours. The hotel manager observed Machado-Rivera and detained him until police arrived.
The investigation revealed Machado-Rivera had climbed a fence blocking access to the hotel’s roof and climbed the stairs to the patio of the penthouse unit. He then entered the penthouse through a sliding door. When the hotel manager saw Machado-Rivera at the penthouse unit, he called police and detained the suspect.
Machado-Rivera ran from the hotel manager but was caught a short-time later. When police arrived, Machado-Rivera was out of breath and had vomited, providing clues that would be useful later in the investigation. The OCPD officer went to the penthouse and found the sliding door ajar. On a table in the penthouse was a partially eaten meal including spaghetti, and a glass of red wine.
On the stove in the unit was a pot containing cooked spaghetti along with other open jars of food. Also located was an open bottle of wine and a partially finished glass of wine. A bed in one of the rooms was disheveled as if someone had been sleeping in it, and the hot tub on the patio was turned on along with other evidence suggesting the suspect had been there as well including partially consumed cans of beer.
In Circuit Court on Tuesday, Machado-Rivera said he had gone to the hotel to visit a friend and had a couple of beers. He told the court he went to the roof area to check out the view and found the penthouse open and entered it, but only stayed for about 30 minutes before leaving. However, Judge Thomas C. Groton dismissed the suspect’s version of the timeline.
“It sounds like you were living there,” he said. “Just how long were you in there? The bed was used, food was cooked and it seems a lot longer than 30 minutes.”
Groton sentenced Machado-Rivera to 60 days for pleading guilty to fourth-degree burglary. He was given credit for three days served after his arrest.