2 felons with assault rifle charged in Berkeley burglary

Alameda County district attorney’s office seal, via Facebook. — Image: Facebook

Two four-time felons charged earlier this month with a recent Berkeley burglary are set to go before an Alameda County judge for a pre-trial hearing Thursday morning.

Antonio Perry of Berkeley and Antoine Ford of Antioch were arrested Nov. 26 after a report of a “hot prowl” burglary in Berkeley in the 2400 block of Haste Street, just east of Telegraph Avenue, during which a suspect smashed a glass door to an apartment while the unknowing resident was asleep inside.

Berkeley Police said, in court documents, that a witness reported seeing one of the men, identified as Ford, enter a home on Haste while a man identified as Perry acted as a lookout and, later, a get-away driver.

The witness told police that Ford broke the apartment door just before midnight, then left in a vehicle driven by Perry. Police responded to the area but were unable to find them, and the apartment resident told police that nothing had been taken.

Less than two hours later, the witness again called police to report that the car, a Ford Focus, and several occupants had returned to the block.

According to court documents, officers responded and spoke with a man in the car, which was parked in front of a residence next door to the apartment that had earlier been burglarized.

Police said they found a center-fire rifle with a detachable 30-round magazine “in plain view in the back seat” of the Ford. Police said the weapon would have been accessible to all passengers in the vehicle.

The witness identified the man in the car as one of the people who had been in the area earlier. Police identified that man as Perry, the driver and look-out, who was a convicted felon on parole.

Four blocks away, another Berkeley Police officer stopped two men in the street, one of whom matched the description from the earlier incident. Police identified that man as Ford, a felon on federal probation.

The second man was identified as 40-year-old Berce Perry, who police said was on parole and probation, which specified a curfew of 10 p.m. He was arrested on suspicion of violating his parole and probation terms, and is scheduled for arraignment Dec. 13.

The Alameda County district attorney’s office charged Ford, 29, and Antonio Perry, 34, with first-degree residential burglary. Perry was also charged with possession of an assault rifle identified in court documents as a “semi-automatic carbine, C.A.I. SKS clone, 7.62×39 caliber” weapon.

(Police initially arrested both men on suspicion of being in possession of the firearm, but the district attorney’s office only filed weapon-related charges in connection with Antonio Perry.)

According to court documents, Ford has four prior Alameda County felony convictions: in 2002 of possession for sale of cocaine base; in 2003 for sale or transportation of a controlled substance; in 2006 for possession of a firearm by a felon with priors; and in September 2013 for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Ford received prison terms for the 2002 and 2006 convictions, and probation in the other two cases.

Antonio Perry also had four prior felony convictions in Alameda County: separate convictions in 2005 for possession for sale of cocaine base, and sale or transportation of a controlled substance; in 2008 for possession for sale of cocaine base; and in 2010 for sale or offering to sell a controlled substance. He was sentenced to prison terms in the three earlier cases, and probation in the 2010 case.

Ford and Antonio Perry are scheduled for a pre-trial hearing Thursday at 9:05 a.m. at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in downtown Oakland in Department 115.

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Emilie Raguso