A 32-year-old New York man pleaded guilty to a series of home burglaries in Massachusetts targeting Asian or South Asian families, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office announced Friday .
The burglaries occurred at homes in Newton, Wellesley, Andover and Quincy.
Juan Castano, 32, of New York, pleaded guilty to 21 counts and was sentenced by Judge Patrick Haggan to 4 to 5 years in state prison as a common and notorious burglar, the district attorney said in a communicated The sentence will run consecutively with a 5 1/2 to 11-year sentence he is currently serving in New York for similar conduct.
Castano was also sentenced to three years of probation for an additional 20 counts of unarmed robbery, breaking and entering, burglary of buildings, theft of a firearm and attempted breaking and entering.
Parole will begin when Castano completes his incarceration in New York, and then in Massachusetts. He was brought back to Massachusetts to answer those charges under the Interstate Detention Agreement while serving his sentence in New York, the district attorney said.
The 10 burglaries happened between June and July 2021 when four homes in Newton were targeted in addition to four locations in Quincy, one in Wellesley and one in Andover, the statement said.
During these robberies, about $200,000 worth of property was stolen, including money, designer watches, jewelry and a gun.
An investigation revealed that Castano found these residences by carrying a clipboard and walking up to the front door. The perpetrators then broke windows or glass doors to enter the houses, ransacked the space and left with the family’s valuables.
A perpetrator was interrupted during a home burglary in Quincy when he tried to climb through a window at night and the family, including a child, was home, Ryan’s office said.
“Juan Castano chose the houses to enter based specifically on the ethnicity of the residents. He specifically came to Massachusetts from the New York area to commit these crimes. “His plan not only violated the victims’ sense of safety, but in one case created a physical threat to family, including children, who were home during the break,” Ryan said in the statement. “This case is an example of a frightening trend of targeted breaches. However, it also illustrates that we are committed to working collaboratively across agencies and across counties, if necessary, to hold accountable those who organize these complex criminal schemes.”
Cell tower and geolocation data obtained through a search warrant found that the same Google account owner and phone subscriber appeared at the same location as those thefts. The records showed Castano made trips to Massachusetts with the help of another person, identified by officials as Wendy Reyes, to burglarize homes.
Reyes is scheduled for trial on April 14, 2025, according to the release.