Suspects in burglary at Joe Burrow's house posed with his stolen jewelry: Complaint
Three men charged with burglarizing the Ohio home of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow last year posed for pictures with some of the $300,000 worth of designer luggage, glasses, wrist watches and jewelry stolen from the residence, according to a newly unsealed federal criminal complaint.
An image taken from the cellphone of one of the suspects shows multiple items -- including wristwatches, jewelry and $10,000 in cash -- stolen from Burrow's home in Anderson Township in December 2024, according to the complaint.
The photos were taken on Dec. 10, 2024, a day after Burrow's home in Anderson Township was broken into, according to the complaint.
A fourth man who was also pictured posing with the stolen items was not charged in the complaint.
An analysis of the suspect's phone "revealed multiple photographs that had been taken of items believed to be stolen from J.B.'s residence," according to the complaint.
Many of these photographs were deleted during a Jan. 10 traffic stop involving the suspects, according to the federal complaint.
Authorities had tracked a cellphone number and license plate believed to be tied to the burglary to a hotel in Fairborn, Ohio, and surveilled the rented vehicle before pulling it over for a traffic violation, according to the complaint.
Two Husky automatic center punch tools -- which authorities said are used to break glass and enter houses -- along with an old LSU shirt and Bengals hat believed to have been stolen from Burrow's home were also found in the vehicle, according to the complaint.
The three Chilean nationals who have been charged showed fake identification but were later confirmed to be Bastian Morales, Jordan Sanchez and Sergio Cabello, according to the complaint.
They were arrested and have been charged with interstate transport of stolen goods and falsification of records in a federal investigation.
Court records do not list any attorney information for the suspects.
A fourth man who was also in the vehicle during the traffic stop was not charged in the complaint.
Burrow was not home at the time of the burglary, which happened while he was playing in a Monday Night Football game in Dallas.
Burrow's friend, Olivia Ponton, arrived at the residence around 8 p.m. "and noticed that the living room and master bedroom looked unusually messy. She then observed that a master bedroom window on the back side of the residence had been broken," the complaint said.
Burrow had security personnel at the home but the men avoided them by entering through the woods, according to the complaint.
The FBI used surveillance images, cellphone tracking and other technology to identify the suspects, who were either in the country illegally or had overstayed their permissions, the complaint said.
A week prior to the burglary, one of the suspects was in contact with the owner of a New York City pawn shop accused of acting as a middleman to sell luxury items burgled from wealthy homeowners, according to federal prosecutors.
The man, Dimitriy Nezhinskiy, was recently charged with conspiracy and receipt of stolen property in connection with a rash of burglaries that police have blamed on South American theft crews.
Phone records and video surveillance linked Nezhinskiy to at least two members of the Burrow home burglary crew, according to court filings.
He and his co-defendant and employee, Juan Villar, are accused of purchasing stolen luxury items from burglary crews based out of South America and then selling them at the Manhattan pawn shop, according to prosecutors. The two men may have been in possession of $5 million in stolen luxury goods, prosecutors said.
They have pleaded not guilty to their charges and were initially granted bail, though a federal judge rescinded it on Friday, saying the pawn shop operators represent a "Super Bowl of criminal activity" whose bail should be denied.
"How ironic it would be for the court to release them two days before the real Super Bowl," Judge William Kuntz in court. "No thank you."
Nezhinskiy's attorney, Todd Greenberg, called the decision "shocking" and said he would ask an appellate court to overturn it.
The judge set a trial date of Aug. 4, though federal prosecutors and defense attorneys said they are trying to arrange possible guilty pleas.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that only three of the four men pictured in the photo and involved in the traffic stop were charged in the criminal complaint.
