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Burglary plea entered in home invasion death case

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A man accused of dumping the body of his stepbrother, killed during a violent confrontation with a Costa Mesa resident in a home invasion gone bad, pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree burglary.

Jacob Anthonisen, a 40-year-old Los Angeles-area gallery owner and art dealer, fled to Mexico after leaving the body of 33-year-old Steven John Simmons wrapped in trash bags and tape in the back of a Cadillac SUV, according to authorities.

Police found the body on June 9, 2012, after they were called to investigate a foul smell coming from a car parked in the Fairfax District in Los Angeles near West Hollywood.

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Authorities eventually connected the body and car to the May 28 home invasion. The resident was not charged in the killing.

Anthonisen, Simmons and a friend, Brent Anthony Buckner, used a crow-bar to pry open the door of the house that night, and the person inside opened fire, police said during an Orange County Superior Court hearing last year.

According to officers’ testimony, Buckner had been working with a burglary crew in Los Angeles called “Efas” — “safe” spelled backward — and in early May recruited friends to branch out into Orange County.

The group broke into at least four homes in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and other locations before and after Simmons’ death, according to police.

Police testified that the burglars struck when their targets weren’t home and usually picked drug dealers and other criminals they figured wouldn’t contact police.

Anthonisen, Simmons and Buckner chose the Costa Mesa home on Elden Avenue because the resident posted on Facebook that he was at a Los Angeles club.

But he’d already returned home and heard two of the burglars making their way upstairs while Anthonisen waited in the SUV, according to police.

“At some point, pepper spray was used [by the burglars] and [the resident] retrieved his gun, which was on the headboard, and he fired five rounds,” Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Scott Stafford testified last year.

Authorities said one of those shots hit Simmons in the chest before he and Buckner fled back to the car past a sign in the home’s front window that read, “Warning, cross the line, your ass is mine.”

The group drove to Buckner’s family home in Villa Park without any attempt to take Simmons to a hospital or contact authorities, prosecutors alleged.

Police said Simmons died before the car reached the 5 Freeway.

Anthonisen fled to Mexico after ditching the body, and Buckner allegedly continued breaking into Orange County homes with his crew, according to authorities.

During last year’s hearing, police described how they were able to piece together what they believe happened by interviewing the suspects’ friends and acquaintances.

Police announced on June 21, 2012, that Anthonisen was a person of interest in the case.

In October 2013, Mexican authorities told U.S. marshals they’d arrested Anthonisen, and Costa Mesa police took him into custody soon after.

Anthonisen was facing charges of burglary, attempted robbery and conspiracy, but the Orange County district attorney’s office dropped the second two charges as part of a negotiated plea agreement, according to court records.

“For so long [prosecutors] were trying to figure out a way to charge them with felony murder,” said Anthonisen’s lawyer, Ashby Sorensen, who called the evidence circumstantial.

The deal means Anthonisen will be sentenced to two years in jail and released in July with credit for the time he has spent behind bars since the arrest, according to his lawyer.

“That works for him,” Sorensen said.

Buckner faces four burglary counts in addition to robbery and conspiracy charges. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

He’s free on $50,000 bail and is due back in court in August, according to court records.

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