Ricci Pleads Not Guilty To Theft

Charges Against Handyman Unrelated To Smart Abduction Case

(CBS)  A former handyman named by police as the top potential suspect in the abduction of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart pleaded innocent on Wednesday to unrelated burglary and theft charges.

Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart, has repeatedly said that he thinks Richard Albert Ricci, 48, was somehow involved in his daughter's kidnapping.

The teen was taken from her bedroom early June 5. Her 9-year-old sister, who had been sleeping in the same bed with Elizabeth, witnessed the abduction.

Ricci, who worked in the Smart home as a handyman last year, has not been charged in connection with the abduction and says he had nothing to do with it. He is now being held in Utah State Prison on the burglary and theft charges as well as a parole violation.

"He's very strong in his denials. He says he just has nothing to do with it," Ricci's attorney, David K. Smith, said after the hearing.

Ricci appeared in shackles in the heavily secured courtroom Wednesday for the three-minute hearing. He entered his innocent plea against the two theft, one burglary and one criminal enhancement charges.

Smith said Ricci has been held in maximum security because of the publicity surrounding Elizabeth's abduction. Officials did not want to put him with the general prison population.

Prosecutors say Ricci stole $3,500 worth of items from the Smarts' Federal Heights home on June 6, 2001. A search of Ricci's trailer on June 19 turned up jewelry, a perfume bottle and a wine glass filled with sea shells that belonged to the Smarts, according to state court charging documents.

In addition, Ricci faces one burglary count and another count of theft for allegedly taking items from a home in the Smarts' wealthy neighborhood in April 2001. Jewelry and about $300 in cash were taken during the night burglary from a bedroom as a resident slept in the same room, according to the charges.

Ricci, who worked as a handyman in both homes, admitted committing the crimes, charging documents said. The state is seeking a career criminal enhancement that could send him to state prison for life.

In addition to the burglary charges he faces in state court, Ricci has been charged in federal court for bank robbery.

Ricci is accused of being the masked gunman who robbed a bank on Nov. 2, 2001.

Ricci and two others are accused of using a 9mm semiautomatic pistol in stealing $1,713 from the Far West Bank in Sandy.

Police have said Ricci has not been forthcoming about where he was between May 30 and June 8.

Ricci's mechanic told a grand jury that the odometer on Ricci's Jeep - which he received from the Smart family as payment for work done on the property - showed that Ricci drove from 500 to 1,000 miles during that time period.