A career burglar from New Jersey was sentenced Tuesday, to serve up to 20 years in state prison for committing several burglaries throughout Bucks County from May 2018 to May 2019.
Billy M. Woodard, 57, of Trenton, N.J., was convicted in a November non-jury trial of one count of robbery and 14 counts of burglary. Additionally, he was convicted of three counts of attempted burglary, 11 counts each of theft and receiving stolen property, 19 counts of loitering or prowling at night and one count each of criminal trespassing, possession of an instrument of crime and theft from a motor vehicle.
Common Pleas Judge Raymond F. McHugh sentenced Woodard to 10 to 20 years in state prison with a concurrent sentence of 20 years of probation.
The investigation by detectives from the Lower Makefield Township, Upper Makefield Township and Falls Township police departments found that Woodard broke into several locations between July 2018 and May 2019, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said. Most of the burglaries happened in Lower Makefield.
Investigators determined that Woodard typically entered occupied homes between 1 and 5 a.m., through an unlocked rear window or door. Once inside, he would take wallets and/or purses he found in the kitchen, and sometimes take laptops or tablet computers.
Woodard was arrested on May 30, 2019, in Lower Makefield Township, with assistance from the Mercer County, N.J., Prosecutors Office, which was surveilling a known burglary suspect. Authorities there described Woodard as a career burglar.
When he was taken into custody, Woodard had a handheld flashlight and pocketknife on him. Inside his vehicle, in plain view, police spotted a laptop computer, a woman’s purse and a black backpack, which contained a woman’s Pennsylvania driver’s license. Those items were later determined to belong to a woman who lived in the 1500 block of Stapler Drive.
As the investigation progressed, investigators used GPS information from Woodard’s phone to place him at the scene of several burglaries. Woodard was identified through the surveillance cameras at people’s homes. In one case, in April 2019, a resident went to investigate a noise and encountered a man, later identified as Woodard, in his living room. The DA’s office said the man took a gold wedding band and watch and told the victim, “I have a gun, don’t follow me.”
The investigation found Woodard burglarized 12 homes in Lower Makefield, one in Upper Makefield and one in Falls Township. In addition, he attempted to burglarize two homes in Lower Makefield and one in Upper Makefield.
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