A man convicted for a string of Boulder burglaries dating back to 2007 has been sentenced to 32 years in community corrections.
James Gurule, 46, was also ordered to pay $762,150.38 in restitution, to have no contact with any of his victims, and was ordered to be subject to GPS monitoring.
The series of burglaries began in 2007 and continued until early 2010, when Boulder detectives and investigators from other agencies stopped Gurule, and Nicholas Gene Dorrance, 48 on U.S. Highway 36 and Church Ranch Boulevard in a vehicle with stolen property.
A crime analyst with the Boulder Police Department had worked with detectives to set up surveillance.
The day the two were arrested, undercover police were conducting surveillance in a targeted neighborhood, and noticed a suspicious SUV leaving the area.
While following the SUV, they were able to confirm that a burglary had just taken place from where the SUV left.
Gurule and Dorrance were arrested, and police were eventually able to link them to 66 burglaries in Boulder and a number more in other jurisdictions.
The two were dubbed the “pillowcase burglars” because they sometimes stole pillowcases to carry away their loot.
Dorrance is already serving a 32-year prison sentence.
Gurule cooperated with police during the investigation, which assisted in the prosecution of Dorrance, and the recovery of hundreds of stolen items.
