Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 22, 1990                   TAG: 9007220153
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: HOUSTON                                LENGTH: Short

MAN SENTENCED TO JAIL FOR PRISON BREAK-IN

"It's the first time I've ever had where somebody was trying to break into jail," Assistant District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said.

David Matthew Winfree, 22, pleaded guilty to burglary for breaking into the Municipal Prison Farm and was sentenced Friday to a year in the Harris County Jail.

Winfree, a landscaper, was apprehended inside a maintenance building Thursday with a $270 battery charger. He told police he was looking for landscaping tools to steal, said Rosenthal.

"It's gotten to the point that the judicial system has made it so attractive for criminals that criminals ask us for prison time instead of probation," said State District Judge Michael McSpadden.

"But we've hit an all-time low when they start knocking down doors to get into prison."