A man who burglarized Wayne Newton's Las Vegas home twice was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years behind bars.
At a hearing on Tuesday, Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani called Weslie Martin, 22, a "serial burglar," citing previous convictions dating back to the time he was 18 years old.
The music legend spoke at the hearing, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal noted that the "Danke Schoen" singer said he now sleeps with a gun on his nightstand.
"It would be impossible for me to articulate what happened to our home, our family and those things we believed in prior to this happening," he told the judge in a victim's impact statement. "I'm still angry. And I realize there should be some compassion. I have none for this defendant. I do have compassion for his mother because with the holidays coming up, to think that she gave birth to that has to be something that haunts her for the rest of her life."
The crook first broke into Newton's house with another man on June 3, 2018. Police would later find stolen items from the first burglary in the defendant's home. Other items were traced to a pawn shop. Martin, along with another man, also broke into Newton's home on June 13, 2018. The men were inside the home when Newton, 77, and his family came home from one of his concerts, forcing the burglars to flee.
The family's two dogs attacked the fleeing men after one of them threatened his wife with a crowbar, Newton, known as "Mr. Las Vegas," said during trial, adding that he drew a handgun and fired a shot into the air.
In June, Martin was convicted of 11 felony counts. He still denies the crimes, despite being caught on security cameras.
"There's no solid evidence to say that I did anything," he told the judge. "The most you have evidence for is possession of stolen property. But I never burglarized this man's home. And you have no evidence to say that I did, at all, period."
District Judge Michael Villani set Martin's maximum sentence at 64 years in prison.