23 year old Dylan Hess was arrested in March 2013 by Detectives Brad Ortenzi and Graeme Quinn of the Ephrata Police Department and charged with, among other things, four residential daytime burglaries that occurred in Ephrata in January 2013. Hess was developed as a suspect following receipt of a crime stoppers tip. Hess confessed to committing the four burglaries in Ephrata and also to two additional residential burglaries that occurred in Akron Borough during January 2013.
In all six burglaries, Hess targeted cash, jewelry and electronics. Total loss exceeded $23,500. Hess first knocked on the victims’ doors to confirm no one was home prior to forcing entry.
At the time of the burglaries, Hess was on parole for two residential burglaries that he committed in January 2012. For those charges, Hess was sentenced in May 2012 to a county prison sentence. Hess was released from Lancaster County Prison on December 4, 2012. He committed the first of the six burglaries on January 10, 2013.
On October 24, 2013, Judge Cullen sentenced Hess to an aggregate state prison term of 8-40 years for charges relating to the six burglaries. Judge Cullen also imposed a consecutive period of 15 years probation for the parole violation.