Seattle man convicted in state’s largest ever copper wire theft

A Seattle man faces over 16 years in prison after being convicted of stealing 4.3 miles of copper wiring from Sound Transit in what’s thought to be the state’s biggest metal-theft ever.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office reports a King County jury last week convicted Donald Turpin, 55, of second-degree burglary; first-degree theft with a metal-theft aggravator; first-degree trafficking in stolen property; and leading an organized crime operation. The King County Prosecutors Office says he could face up to 16 1/2 years in prison.

Lee Russell Skelly, 45, a co-defendant in the case, pleaded guilty to first-degree theft. He faces up to 90 days in jail.

Investigators caught the pair after matching their DNA to Gatorade bottles found at one of the crime scenes.

The thefts took place from November 2010 through August of 2011. Detectives determined the men entered maintenance hatches in a tunnel that runs below the elevated portion of the light rail between the SeaTac and Rainer Beach Rail Stations.

The pair allegedly committed all their crimes at night, walking the miles-long stretch, cutting and dropping the wire through air vents and then driving along the line and picking it up at various locations.

Investigators discovered the men took the wire to various scrap metal recycling businesses in King County. Prosecutors say Turpin netted approximately $39,000 while Skelly received over $4,000. The replacement cost of the 70,000 pounds of copper wire is estimated at $1.3 million.

“This crime shows the astounding lengths that some criminals will go to take what isn’t theirs,” said King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg. “The defendants in this case literally stripped away at our public transportation infrastructure,” he added.