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"I'm very happy with the verdict," said Randy Parrent of Sandusky, owner of the safe stolen from his office on Gates Road in Custer Township Halloween night two and a half years ago.

"It's been a long time coming," said Parrent, who also saw Earls' accomplice in the crime, Anthony "JR" Gadomski, convicted in a separate trial last month.

"I believe the evidence spoke for itself," said Parrent. "I wasn't worried. Lt. (Jim) Wagester did a good job locating the evidence, talking with the witnesses. Just taking care of everything with the trial."

After the verdict was announced, Circuit Judge Donald Teeple granted the prosecutor's motion to revoke Earls bond and incarcerate him in the Sanilac County Jail, pending sentencing on Sept. 4 at 8:30 a.m.

The 12-member jury, consisting of 10 women and two men, deliberated approximately three and a half-hours before returning the verdict at 3:17 p.m.

Earls, 51, was found guilty of four charges, and, because he's a habitual criminal, faces a possible life sentence. He was found guilty of safe breaking, home invasion Ð 2nd degree, receiving and concealing stolen property more than $1000 less than $20,000, and receiving and concealing stolen firearms. He was acquitted of possessing stolen firearms.

"We think it was a substantial and compelling circumstantial evidence case," commented Prosecutor James Young. "And we believe it clearly established our burden of proof for the changes of which he was convicted. W are very grateful to the jury and appreciative for their decision."

Defense attorney David Herrington of Bad Axe, who attacked the credibility of several key witnesses during the course of the trial, expressed disappointment.

"I disappointed with the verdict, it was a real stretch," said Herrington. He called some of the testimony "completely unbelievable."

Security was tight for the final day of the five day trial. Sheriff department personnel checked individuals entering the courtroom with a handheld metal detector for possible weapons. About a half-dozen officers from the sheriff department and Sandusky Police Department were outside or inside the courtroom, concerned about a possible replay of the ending of the Gadomski trial, when there was a confrontation between two individuals and police.

Young stitched together a case of circumstantial evidence, with a video-tape that placed him at the gas station when a phone call was made to the Flanagan and Parrent farmhouse, eye-witness accounts of a car similar to Earls being seen at the residence, and banking and business records and witness statements proving Earls went on a spending spree after the theft, with cash expenditures of $33,250 in the days and weeks following Halloween.

Defense attorney David Herrington attempted to unravel the evidence by attacking the credibility of witnesses, among them two men who received work release privileges from the county jail in the spring and summer of 2005 to do private work for the lead investigator in the case, Sgt. Jim Wagester.

About 30 witnesses took the stand, among them Earls, the surprise witness for the defense who testified at the end of the trial for close to an hour.

Earls was accused of stealing the safe containing an estimated $135,000 from Randy Parrent's office at 810 Gates Rd., Sandusky, around 6 p.m. on Halloween night, Oct. 31, 2004.

Earls, who owns a roofing business, testified he was at his residence on Town Line Rd., Sandusky that afternoon, setting up for a church Halloween party on the property that started at 4 p.m.

He explained he wanted to go on the traveling scavenger hunt that started at 5 p.m., but there wasn't any room in church member Greg Dorman's car. Instead, he and Anthony "JR" Gadomski Ð who has since been convicted of the Parrent safe breaking in a separate trial last month - drove to Sandusky for some "fast food" for Gadomski. They stopped at Burger King and bought gas for Earls' white Dodge Intrepid at the Mr. Chip's station, both on M-46 about two miles from the Parrent office.

Earls told the jury they left the party around 5:20 or 5:25 p.m. and returned about 6, traveling a direct route from Town Line Road to M-46 and back. He denied driving by the Gates Road address, and said he was at his house the rest of the night, although Gadomski left after "a few minutes" when "a few people picked him up." He also said it was "possible" Gadomski made a call from the Mr. Chip's pay phone.

Dorman, of Snover, and church member Katie Tovar of Sandusky confirmed Earls being at the party prior to the scavenger hunt, but neither recalled seeing him after the hunt ended around 6 p.m.

Earls also testified that he went to see Parrent the night of Feb. 16, 2005, and told him, "I have nothing to hide," and met with sheriff's officers the following day "to get the situation resolved."

Prosecution witness Laura Flanagan, who rented the Parrent farmhouse where the attached office was located, testified she and her family went trick or treating in Deckerville Halloween night. They left around 4:30 p.m. and returned around 9 or 9:30 p.m. There was a phone number on the caller ID at 5:49 p.m., which police later traced to a pay phone outside Mr. Chip's.. Phone records showed a 12-second call to Flanagan's at that time.

The next day, Monday, Nov. 1 around 7 a.m., Parrent discovered the safe was missing from his office located upstairs between the attached garage and farmhouse. He observed a scrape mark on a concrete slab below a 10 foot high wood deck, and a broken safe handle nearby. He called 911.

Parrent testified the safe contained approximately $135,00 in cash, mostly 20, 50 and 100 dollar bills, wrapped in bundles of $500, $1000 and $2000 in red, purple and yellow bank wrappers.

He used the money to "buy and sell construction and farm equipment from time to time."

Parrent testified the 148-pound safe was kept in a small closet located a few feet from the deck. There was no lock on the closet and the office door was only locked when he was on vacation.

Parrent said his farm was known as the "rock farm" because he had a bolder business that he sold in Dec. 2002 for $2.5 million. Parrent said the last time he was in the office, prior to Nov. 1, was either Friday, Oct. 29 or Saturday, Oct. 30.

Parrent said he offered a $10,000 reward Ð which was later upped to $15,000 when no one came forward - for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the thieves. After the preliminary exam on June 25, 2005, when Earls and Gadomski were bound over for trial, he paid witnesses Todd Davis, Jim Coburn, Dan McGregor and Fred Bischoff $500 each, and Pete Kanan $200, leaving a balance of $12,800 for possible future payments.

Detective-Sgt. Jim Johnson testified the safe was handed down the safe from the deck to an accomplice standing below on a wooden park bench. At some point, the safe may have fallen to the cement, causing the scrape. No crime-related fingerprints were found at the scene, and footprints in the dust on the deck could not be identified. Johnson said the safe was recovered Dec. 8 in St. Clair County. He measured the safe and the trunk of Earls' Intrepid and determined the safe could have fit in the trunk, although there was no evidence it had been there. A police search of the Earls property on March 11, 2005 yielded no direct evidence.

Johnson also testified he spoke with Earls on Feb. 17, 2005, at which time Earls denied any involvement in the theft, and related he had been at the Halloween party. Earls only acknowledged being at Mr. Chips with Gadomski after Johnson showed him that video surveillance cameras had caught him on film at the station between 5:48 and 5:50 p.m.

The tape showed the car pulling into the station - located about one and three-quarter miles from the Parrent office - but being out of camera view for 30 seconds before pulling up to the gas pumps. Authorities believe Gadomski made the 12-second call at that time.

Neighbors Lou Ann and William Maier, who lived on Gates Road about a half-mile south of the farmhouse, testified they were home around 5:30 Ð 6 p.m. Oct. 31 when a white car drove slowly by their house to the north. A little while later, they observed a white Intrepid pull into their driveway, then leave and turn to the north. William Maier testified he watched the car as it approached the Parrent farmhouse. A short time later, between 6 and 6:10 p.m., they observed a white car parked next to the garage of the Flanagan farmhouse, but couldn't identify the make or model.

Another Gates Road resident, Lonny Morden, testified he drove by the farmhouse between 5:50-6 p.m., on his way to Sandusky to buy an oil filter at Tractor Supply, and saw a white car by the garage.

A key witness for the prosecution, Todd Davis of Sandusky, Earls' cousin, claimed he worked for Earls on a roofing job in the fall of 2004 and went to the Earls residence a day or two after Halloween.

"I saw he had a bunch of money...forty thousand dollars stacked on the table ", wrapped in "purplish" colored bank wrappers, said Davis. Earls was "counting it out, stacking it" and told him "he got a big score from the rock farm." Money wrappers were "all over." Davis recalled Earls had $17,000 in one pile for credit card bills, and $9000 in another for his mother-in-law.

Davis said he decided to tell the authorities what he knew after he was picked up for back child support in the spring of 2005, and learned that Earls had filed a complaint against him for stealing tools.

Later in the trial, Earls, his wife, Deb, and his daughter, Meagan, testified Davis was not at their house Nov. 1, and had been barred from the property for a couple years because he had stolen from them. Earls also denied Davis worked for him that fall. Earls' son, Justin, testified he spent Halloween night at Davis' house in North Branch and Davis was there late that morning when he woke up.

Jim Coburn of Croswell testified that Earls and Gadomski came to his house on Nov. 10, 2004, and Earls handed him $1350 in back pay for roofing work. The money came from a bag filled with money and money wrappers, Coburn said.

However, the lead investigator in the case, Sgt. Wagester, during cross examination, testified that Gadomski wasn't in Michigan on Nov. 10.

Wagester, now a lieutenant with the sheriff department, also acknowledged hiring both Coburn and Davis to work on his rental property in the spring of 2005. Both men were serving jail sentences at the time, and received daily work release for two weeks to build two decks and replace siding for Wagester. It was the same time period they testified against Earls at his preliminary exam in district court on June 24, 2005. Wagester paid $700 each for the work. He acknowledged he did not contact the prisoners' probation officer or the judge about the private work, and said he didn't realize Coburn had been serving time for a felony.

Dan McGregor of Carsonville testified he found two pistols in a bedroom at his mobile home in Feb. 2005, after a visit to his residence by Earls, Justin Earls and Justin's girlfriend, Stephanie Alden of Snover. McGregor said he gave the weapons - 25 and 38 caliber guns that had been in the Parrent safe - to Fred Bishoff to sell.

McGregor claimed Earls called him a couple days later and told him, "they were his guns Ð he wanted the guns." Earls called him three times asking for the weapons.

The defense attempted to refute McGregor's testimony by calling Alden to the stand. She claimed she was the one who found the guns, approximately one hour before Earls and his son arrived at the trailer.

McGregor acknowledged there were frequent visitors to the mobile during the period, and he hadn't been in the bedroom where the guns were found for a while. He also stated that in exchange for his testimony, authorities had dismissed a criminal charge from Jan. 2004. He also admitted he once attempted suicide because he was afraid of going back to prison.

Carl Begley of Sandusky testified that Earls confessed the entire crime to him. Earls said he and Gadomski drove to Mr. Chips where Gadomski phoned the Flanagan residence to make sure no one was there. Earls drove the white Intrepid to the farmhouse, "dropped JR off to get the safe...drove down the road and came back" to pick him up.

Begley testified that on Nov. 1, while Earls was driving him to a roofing job in Croswell, he "had JR give him $300 out of a bag". Begley reported he "saw wrappers in it, red, purple and yellow."

During cross-examination, Begley confirmed he never talked to police about the safe until March 1, 2006, when he had a big fight with his girlfriend, Megan Earls, and they broke up. Begley initially filed a complaint against Megan, claming she hit him with her car. However, when she countered with a complaint that he had threatened her father with a shotgun and had jumped on the hood of her car and pounded and shattered the windshield, Begley said he decided to tell authorities about Earls' confession.

Later in the trial, a tearful Megan Earls told the jury that Begley threatened on March 1 to burn down the Earls house and kill the family, and had threatened to testify against her father.

Tom Earls also testified that he never saw Begley the morning of Nov. 1, and didn't go to the work site but instead drove to the Detroit area to pick up a check for $8300 for a roofing job.

Peter Kanan of Sandusky testified about a conversation he had with Earls in early 2005. "He told me it was a 60-40 (split). He got 60 and the other person got 40, it came from the Parrent safe," said Kanan. Earls also told him he used the money to buy a hot tub and a trailer and pay off credit card bills, Kanan testified.

Under cross-examination Kanan admitted he gave different testimony at the preliminary exam in2005, when he reported "other people" told him about the money split, and he didn't know anything about money from the safe. Kanan also admitted using drugs in early 2005, which could have clouded his recollection of events.

Kanan's ex-wife, Rita, testified for the defense that her former husband had a reputation for being a "liar and a con man."

The prosecution called several witnesses from businesses that got cash from Earls in the days and weeks after the safe theft.

Douglas Bays of Sanilac Oil & Tire, Sandusky, testified Earls came in the first week of November and paid $1500 on his account, "all in hundred dollar bills."

Michael Goodknect of Beck's Propane and Marine, St. Johns, testified Earls bought a new dump trailer on Nov. 29, 2004 for $5700 and paid about $2000 in cash and the balance by checks.

On Nov. 4 Earls made a $6000 cash payment on his account at Square Deal Building Supply in Almont.

Christine Craig of Len's Pool & Spa, Lakeport, told the jury Earls bought a hot tub on Nov. 2, 2004. Earls gave her about $3000 in "big bills...I remember pulling the wrappers off," she testified. Under cross-examination, she reported Earls had been a customer for several years and often paid in cash.

Records from several area banks, including Bank One (Chase) Eastern Michigan Bank and Tri-County Bank showed many cash deposits in Earls business and personal accounts in November and December ranging from a couple hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.

In cross-examination, bank officials and businesses he dealt with confirmed Earls frequently made cash transactions on his accounts and made large purchases in cash. Earls' mother-in-law, Joyce Schell, testified she gave him a couple thousand dollars to buy the dump trailer in November.

Earls testified he received $17,000 for a roofing job in mid-October 2004 that was deposited in Eastern Michigan Bank, and had received a check for about $25,000 in September 2004.

However, the prosecutor pointed out that Earls' accounts at Eastern Michigan were overdrawn the end of October.