LOGAN — A 42-year-old West Jordan woman has been sent to jail for her role in stealing thousands of dollars in construction equipment from a Cache Valley contractor in 2022. Vanessa Patino Nevarez was ordered to serve 30 days in the Cache County Jail and then be placed on probation.
According to court records, Nevarez was sentenced April 30 in Logan’s 1st District Court. She previously accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to theft, a second-degree felony.
According to prosecutors, Nevarez and Matthew Derek Petersen stole a construction trailer in Providence, during the nighttime hours of Aug. 25-26, 2022. It contained more than $10,000 worth of mostly new tools belonging to a local contractor.
Cache County Sheriff’s deputies obtained surveillance footage from an adjacent business which captured video of a truck as it pulled the trailer from the parking lot. It appeared to be a maroon Dodge Ram with an extended cab, along with a number of additional distinguishing features.
Several days later, an off-duty deputy located the stolen trailer abandoned in a campsite. It had been stripped and emptied of its contents.
On Sept. 1, 2022, deputies from the Bear Lake County Sheriff’s Office located the defendant’s truck in Paris, Idaho. It was registered to Petersen. The tire tread matched tracks from the campsite where the abandoned trailer was found.
Investigators located several of the stolen items inside the truck. Most of the tools were gone, leading law enforcement to suspect they had been disposed of, sold or stored at another location. Photos from Nevarez’s cellphone showed some of the stolen tools laid out, presumably to show potential buyers.
During Wednesday’s sentencing, Judge Brian Cannell ordered Nevarez to begin serving her sentence May 2. He also scheduled her to appear again in court June 11 for a restitution hearing.
Petersen is currently in the Utah State Correctional Facility, serving a sentence of 1 – 15 years.