Sayville burglar gets 30 years

A brazen burglar who prosecutors said broke into Sayville homes and burglarized them while homeowners were asleep was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday following a six-week trial in Riverhead.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said Stephen Collins, 41, of West Sayville, convicted in November of burglary, grand larceny, criminal trespass and other crimes, was sentenced to 10 years on each of three burglary convictions - those terms to be served consecutively in state prison, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said.

The sentences on the other convictions are to be served concurrently, Spota said.

"The defendant broke into homes in the middle of the night, the occupants of the houses sound asleep in their beds as he stole jewelry, laptops, cash and wallets," Spota said in a prepared statement.

He called Collins "brazen" and said he even applied for new credit cards using the information from the cards he stole. He also said Collins called the banks used by his victims "to inquire about their credit balances."

The burglaries occurred in August and September 2009, at homes on West Lane, Coral Lane and Macon Avenue.

The grand larceny conviction stemmed from the theft of a wallet and credit cards by Collins from a Jeep parked on South Street in Sayville.