Admitted Lemur Looter Cops To 29 Burglaries In Newport Beach

NEWPORT BEACH, CA —On Tuesday, a 19-year-old Newport Beach man pleaded guilty to committing multiple burglaries, along with admitting to lift a lemur from a local zoo.
Aquinas Arrigo Kasbar accepted a plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Andre Manssourian, according to the defendant's attorney, Brian Gurwitz. As part of the agreement, Manssourian agreed to cap any punishment at 15 years and four months, but Kasbar's sentence could be less, Gurwitz said.

He will be sentenced for the zoo caper in October and is scheduled to be sentenced on the burglary charges by Manssourian on Jan. 10 in the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.

In July of 2019, he pleaded to the misdemeanor count of unlawfully taking an endangered species, which carries a maximum sentence of a year in federal prison and a $100,000 fine.

The Newport Beach resident is scheduled to be sentenced for that Oct. 28 in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. His punishment in federal court is expected to run concurrent with any sentence resulting from the state court charges, federal prosecutors said.

"I would just emphasize that my client quickly regretted his action and took action that night to ensure that the lemur was returned safely to the zoo," Gurwitz told City News Service.

On the night of July 27, 2018, Kasbar broke into the zoo on after it had closed for the day. He used bolt cutters to cut a hole in the enclosure for lemurs and capuchin monkeys, setting the monkeys free

Santa Ana zookeepers and animal control officers managed to wrangle several monkeys back into their cages after the break-in. Isaac -- at age 32 the oldest living ring-tailed lemur in captivity --could not be located.

Isaac has already outlived a lemur's average lifespan of 20 to 25 years. The ring-tailed lemur is on a list of the 25 most endangered primates, in part because of black market pet trading, according to prosecutors.

After Kasbar took Isaac, reportedly with the initial intent of keeping the lemur as a pet, the defendant "put the animal in a plastic drawer that lacked ventilation holes," according to his plea agreement.

The next day, the animal -- still in the drawer -- was abandoned in front of a Marriott hotel in Newport Beach, with two notes that read, "Lemur (with tracker)" and "This belongs to the Santa Ana Zoo it was taken last night please bring it to police," according to court papers.

Kasbar's actions cost the zoo about $8,486, according to federal prosecutors.

Isaac still resides at the Santa Ana Zoo, a spokesperson from Santa Ana Zoo has said.

Kasbar was initially charged in December with five burglaries in Newport Beach, but further investigation led the Orange County District Attorney's Office to charge him in April with an additional 24 burglary counts. He was also charged with a count of attempted burglary in addition to charges of resisting arrest and possessing burglary tools.

Kasbar's alleged burglary spree began in May 2018 and stretched through December, when he was arrested and charged with breaking into high-end homes and stealing jewelry and other valuables, including a series of guitars.

Evidence from a pawn shop helped link Kasbar to the break-ins, prosecutors said. When police tried to arrest him, Kasbar ran away and jumped into the water in the Back Bay area, authorities said.

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