A man from Seattle has been apprehended and charged in connection with a string of burglaries, with targets being the residences of professional athletes.
The man in question, Earl Henderson Riley IV, aged 21, stands accused of conducting burglaries at the homes of professional athletes including Blake Snell, a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers; Julio Rodriguez and Luis Castillo, both players for the Seattle Mariners; and Richard Sherman, a former cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks. The charges, as laid out by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, include four counts of residential burglary and one count of first-degree robbery.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has been instrumental in this case, having worked diligently for weeks on multiple search warrants that eventually led to the filing of these serious charges. The accused is currently being held in King County Jail with his bail set at $1 million.
The police investigation commenced in the early part of 2025, with the attorney’s office collaborating with six separate police jurisdictions in a concerted effort. The investigation remains ongoing, and charges may yet be filed against other parties. The objective, as expressed by the authorities, was to disrupt the burglary crew due to their ongoing illicit activities.
Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Gary Ernsdorff stated, “We could do that once we identified what we believe is the ringleader of this bunch and charge him as we’ve done today. That doesn’t mean our work is finished. We still want to go and identify everybody who was involved and see if there are additional people that we can have sufficient evidence to charge.”
The defendant, Earl Riley IV, had previously been held in custody and released by the court on February 7, after pleading guilty to three counts of robbery as charged. This raises important questions about the efficiency of our criminal justice system and its ability to deter repeated offenses.
