A Seattle-area man who was sentenced to 22 months in jail on Jan. 24 for second-degree burglary and motor vehicle theft also was charged with second-degree possession of stolen property of a utility cart from the Island Square Apartments on Mercer Island.

The three acts were connected together in a common scheme, according to former King County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Satterberg in King County Superior Court charging documents.

Defendant Osman Swaray Ibrahim pleaded guilty to the burglary and theft charges in judge Sean O’Donnell’s courtroom at the downtown Seattle King County Courthouse. As an agreed recommendation for pleading guilty as charged, he was also ordered to pay restitution at a hearing, according to Casey McNerthney, director of communications of the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Following Seattle police’s arrest of Ibrahim in its jurisdiction for the burglary and theft, officers became aware of the utility cart theft from the Island Square Apartments that are located at 2758 78th Ave. S.E.

According to the timeline of the court documents, it was reported on June 17, 2020 that an Island Square Apartments-owned orange Taylor-Dunn utility cart — valued at $14,000 — was missing and believed to be stolen. An apartments representative informed the Mercer Island Police Department (MIPD) responding officer that she believed the cart was swiped between June 16-17 and that an employee left the key in the ignition. The representative gave the officer the cart’s serial number and said she would attempt to locate surveillance footage of the area during the time of the theft (no footage was found).

Over in West Seattle on June 21, 2020, Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers responded to a report of an unoccupied vehicle with hazard lights on and blocking the westbound lane of traffic on Southwest Admiral Way, documents read. The officers spotted an unknown man — who was later identified as Ibrahim — wearing a construction vest, blue jeans and carrying two small gas cans walking in the area. Two people on scene told police that someone matching Ibrahim’s description had stolen gas cans from a carport, and noted that his car ran out of gas and he was going to get more fuel. Ibrahim was later spotted without the gas cans and told police that he didn’t have a car.

SPD later learned that the license plate and vehicle identification numbers of the unoccupied black 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia matched those of a reported stolen vehicle from a business on West Commodore Way. Surveillance footage matched Ibrahim, who was later observed returning to the scene and attempting to retrieve an orange Taylor-Dunn cart. After police arrived at 26th Avenue West and Gilman Place and Ibrahim was positively identified, they placed him into custody.

During an arrest search, police located the stolen car keys and one key for the Mercer Island Taylor-Dunn cart on Ibrahim’s person.

According to documents, video footage showed, “Ibrahim prior to stealing (the) vehicle arriving driving an orange cart. Ibrahim denied any knowledge of the cart. Officers then used one of the keys found on Ibrahim to start the cart. Officers then located a serial number on the cart and a number to contact emergency services.”

Officers then contacted the representative at Island Square Apartments and said they located the cart, which was left at the scene for the representative to retrieve.

McNerthney said that Ibrahim’s sentence range — set by state lawmakers and influenced by his offender score based on previous conviction history — was 22-29 months for the burglary charge and 14-18 for the theft charge.

“Those sentences are concurrent,” he said. “On the consecutive part of the sentence, RCW section 9.94A.589,(1)(a) explains that serious violent felonies like these are to be served consecutively unless they are the ‘same criminal conduct.’”