By Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First
A Burlington man, who is a familiar face in state criminal court and to area police, won’t be released from federal custody to enroll in a residential drug treatment facility while awaiting sentencing in U.S. District Court on a stolen gun charge.
Yesi Garelnabi, 34, of King Street is facing at least 11 criminal cases in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington and is due for arraignment on Jan. 13 on new state charges. He is part of the new Accountability Court set up by Gov. Phil Scott to adjudicated ongoing repeat offenders, court records show.
Garelnabi is due for sentencing in U.S. District Court for a felony charge for knowingly possessing a loaded gun that he stole from a parked car at the University of Vermont on March 9, court records show. He pleaded guilty in August and is due for sentencing in January.
But his defense lawyer said in court this week that he was hoping, ahead of sentencing, to get Garelnabi into Valley Vista, a residential treatment center in Bradford to begin his drug rehabilitation.
Garelnabi is a Burlington native and played soccer at both Johnson State and Lyndon State Colleges before graduating in 2016. The defendant is known also as Yessi Gar-Elnabi, records show.
Burlington, South Burlington and UVM are among the police agencies in Chittenden County that have dealt with Garelnabi in recent years, mostly for illegally entering cars, stealing items, including credit cards and then trying to either use or sell the items for his drug habit, records show.
He also was under a 24-hour court-imposed court curfew at his King Street residence, but has been found in the community violating his conditions of release imposed by state judges.
Brattleboro Police also has criminal charges for stealing out of cars in Windham County, records show.
Chief Federal Judge Christina Reiss wasn’t buying the defense’s rehabilitation pitch this week ahead of his sentencing.
It turns out that Garelnabi also had some disciplinary reports while in prison during the summer, including one for setting a fire in a microwave in an effort to mask the smell for smoking cocaine, according to comments in court.
Assistant Federal Defender Charles N. Curlett Jr. said Garelnabi has since begun to turn the corner in recent months with no disciplinary reports.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Lasher, who was filling in for the hearing, said reports indicated that Garelnabi had 3 major and 6 minors disciplinary reports while in jail leading up to the fire and possession of cocaine case.
The ATF initially arrested Garelnabi on two felony charges: knowingly possessing a stolen firearm and for willful receipt of a firearm while facing a crime punishable by more than one year in prison, records show.
Garelnabi stole the 9-mm Glock with a loaded 32-round magazine just one minute after the car was parked at the Gutterson lot at UVM about 1:10 p.m. March 9, the ATF said in court papers.
UVM Police officers were able to capture security screenshots of the thief and shared with law enforcement.
Then-Winooski Police Officer Ahmed Sharif, who is now a Vermont State Trooper, recognized Garelnabi from going to school and playing sports with him, court records show.
Curlett said in court Garelnabi did not have a drug problem until after he got out of college. He said his client began “tugging on door handles” – the act of stealing from cars in order to get proceeds to pay for drugs.
Curlett said unfortunately for his client one car had a loaded firearm and he sold it to the wrong person – somebody of interest to the ATF.
Curlett said he hopes to ask for a time served sentence when Garelnabi is sentenced in January. That could equate to about nine months.
State court records show his public defender was hoping for a global resolution once Garelnabi completed his residential drug rehab.
Attempts to reach Special Prosecutor Zach Weight, who is handling the frequent flyers in the Chittenden criminal court, were unsuccessful.