A homeless man accused of breaking into the Hall of Languages last February will avoid prison time if he completes treatment for his drug addiction.

City Court Judge James Cecile has determined that Duncan “Wonderboy” Miller is eligible for the treatment program, which was created to address cases where drug addiction could have contributed to the crime, said Miller’s defense attorney, Don Kelly. In exchange for getting treatment, Miller, 22, homeless, had to plead guilty to one of the felonies against him: third-degree burglary.

Kelly said terms for the program have not been set. But, he said, Miller will have to enter into treatment for at least 18 months. Miller is being held in jail until a bed opens up in an in-patient treatment facility.

The ruling comes two weeks after Miller’s co-defendant, Christopher “Shinobi” Dugger, pleaded guilty to burglarizing an office in Hall of Languages for a two-to four-year prison sentence. Dugger had a prior felony conviction for attempted burglary, and the two to four years was the minimum sentence he could’ve gotten by law, his defense attorney has said.

The Syracuse University Department of Public Safety arrested the pair after a chase outside Hall of Languages on Feb. 15. Police said the men were both found with two stolen laptops, worth about $1,000. Miller was also charged for cocaine possession.

DPS has previously said the two were being considered “possible suspects” in a string of campus burglaries that happened earlier in the semester. An Onondaga County grand jury indicted the men in early April for the burglary at Hall of Languages.

Miller is also accused of taking $7,642 worth of electronics from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications on Feb. 9. He was charged with an additional count of third-degree burglary on March 4 after Syracuse police say his fingerprints matched ones found on a box in Newhouse.

Kelly said the district attorney’s office is deciding whether to pursue an indictment on the Newhouse case. If that happens, Miller would have to plead guilty to the charges in the new indictment as part of the deal, Kelly said.

The next court date for Miller’s case is set for June 3.

Published on May 13, 2014 at 12:16 pm

Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum