GRAND JUNCTION — A Grand Junction man is being ordered to spend 24 years in prison for possessing a bronze pig statue taken from the city’s Main Street.
Forty-two-year-old Daniel Vigil learned his sentence Monday in Mesa County District Court.
A jury convicted Vigil in January on one felony count of theft by receiving. The pig statue was found in a stolen truck in which Vigil was living last April.
The bronze art work, titled Sir, was at the corner of Sixth and Main streets in Grand Junction as part of the Art on the Corner public art project.
“It actually was a piggy bank — there was money in it,” said Allison Sarmo, a member of the Art on the Corner committee.
Sarmo said the artwork had been on display “for a decade collecting money, but there was no way to get the money out.” The artist had created a slot in the pig’s back, but no removable plug.
Sir has been repaired, she said, adding, “The foundry took the slit out.”
Mesa County District Judge Valerie Robison said the conviction was Vigil’s fourth on felony charges, and she declared him a habitual offender.
That turned a six-year sentence into a 24-year term.
Vigil is now awaiting trial on a charge of vehicular assault.
He is suing Mesa County for $50 million, alleging deputies used excessive force while arresting him last June.
