Pima County authorities have arrested a man in connection with the theft of two World Series rings from Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona's Tucson home.
At about 7 p.m. Tuesday night, 33-year-old Jamey Estep was arrested and charged with second degree burglary, theft and trafficking in stolen property β all felonies, according to a news release from the Pima County Sheriff's Department.
Estep, who has a years-long criminal history in Arizona, was already being held at the Pima County jail in connection with other charges, according to Pima County Superior Court records. He's being held without bond.
Francona reported the rings stolen on Nov. 7, when deputies went to a home near East Sunrise Drive and North Campbell Avenue for reports of a theft, according to a Pima County Sheriff's Department news release.
Deputies were told two rings from the 2004 and 2007 World Series were missing from Francona's home and believed to have been stolen, the release said.
Francona, a former University of Arizona baseball player, earned both rings during his time as manager of the Boston Red Sox, a position he held from 2004 to 2011. He has managed the Indians since the 2013 season.
The rings were found to have been sold to a sports memorabilia store in Phoenix. Detectives were able to recover the rings, according to the release. The sheriff's department did not release the name of the store where the rings were located.
Estep has a lengthy criminal history in Arizona,dating back to 2003, when he was convicted of armed robbery and burglary in Maricopa County, according to Arizona court records.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison in connection with the armed robbery charge and four years for the burglary charge, Arizona Department of Corrections records show. It's unclear from the records how much of that time Estep actually served.
In 2012, Estep was found guilty of a marijuana charge in Maricopa County and sentenced to eight months in prison. In May 2013, Estep went back to prison in connection with a burglary charge from 2002, serving two more years before his May 2015 release, prison and court records show.
Later that year, he was found guilty of shoplifting in Scottsdale city court, Arizona court records show.
By June 2018, Estep had made his way to Tucson, where he was charged with burglary, fraudulently obtaining a credit card, theft of a means of transportation, identity theft and other charges, according to Pima County Superior Court records.
A year later, Estep was charged with a narcotic drug violation, drug paraphernalia charges and four counts of forgery, Pima County Superior Court records show.
In Pima County Superior Court, Estep is also facing felony charges from August involving weapons misconduct and narcotic drug violations, and two felony charges of organized retail theft from September.
All of the Pima County cases are ongoing, court records show.
During the investigation into Francona's stolen World Series rings, detectives discovered a check in the amount of $245,830, also belonging to Francona. It was believed to have been fraudulently deposited earlier this year, the release said.
Francona told the news website cleveland.com that the check was a tax refund check that had been stolen from his Tucson home.
βIβm incredibly grateful to the effort that the Pima County Sheriffβs Department has put forth in this,β Francona told the website. βBeyond that I canβt comment because itβs an open investigation.β
Cleveland.com reported that court documents stated investigators received information last month that somebody had tried to sell Francona’s rings at the Phoenix sports memorabilia shop for $40,000 apiece. A suspect in that case had earlier been identified as trying to deal the rings in exchange for a vehicle.
Police have also identified a woman who deposited the stolen tax refund check into a bank account using a forged signature. The search warrant issued covers the woman’s bank records dating back to June 2018, according to cleveland.com
