Conviction on Felony Burglary and Forgery Charges

District Attorney's Office Announces Conviction of Man After Two Day Trial and Intent to Seek Habitual Criminal Sentence

April 6, 2016
Reno, Nevada

The Washoe County District Attorney’s Office has secured a guilty verdict against a man charged with burglary and forgery offenses.  The man was found guilty after a two day trial held in District Court where the jury heard evidence about an April, 2015 incident that took place at a local casino.

Rico Romero Smith, 53 (DOB 7/22/62) from Reno was found guilty Tuesday afternoon of one count of Burglary and one count of Possession of a Forged Instrument in Washoe County District Court.  Trial began Monday morning and concluded with the jury deliberating for less than an hour before Smith was convicted of the felony charges. 

The case against Smith began on April 30, 2015, when the Reno Police Department responded to a report from employees of the Atlantis Casino that a male subject was attempting to pass a suspected forged payroll check. When officers arrived, they identified the man as Smith and determined that the check for $845.00 was a forgery. The check appeared to have been written by a local educational academy and drawn on a local credit union, but the routing number belonged to a Michigan bank.  The check also misspelled the name of the credit union as the “Untited Credit Union.”  Based on this information, the Reno Police Department arrested Smith and submitted a case for prosecution.  This office subsequently filed formal criminal charges against Smith.

During trial, the prosecutor introduced evidence that showed Smith had gone into the casino with the intent to cash the check after agreeing to cash it for a man that he had met at a bus stop earlier that day.  Smith admitted to Atlantis employees that he did not work for the academy and that he had not earned the check.

Based on Smith’s extensive criminal history dating back to 1981, the District Attorney’s Office filed a notice to the court of intent to seek habitual criminal status for sentencing purposes, alleging Smith has previously been convicted of 11 felony charges in California. In addition, Smith had been convicted as a habitual criminal in California, but had the sentence modified and was released from prison early.  Smith is set to be sentenced on June 2, 2016, and, if convicted as a habitual criminal, faces a potential maximum sentence of life in prison. In contrast, the sentence for the burglary and forgery charges would be a term of one to 14 years in prison.