Man who stole $13K worth of books from Boulder comic shop sentenced to prison

Heather Willard
·2 min read
1
Man who stole $13K worth of books from Boulder comic shop sentenced to prison

DENVER (KDVR) — A man accused of stealing over $13,000 worth of merchandise from a Boulder comic shop was sentenced Wednesday to a total of nine years in the Department of Corrections, according to the Boulder District Attorney’s Office.

James Dobbins Wear, 36, of Nederland, was accused of breaking into Time Warp Comics on 28th Street on July 28, 2023. Surveillance video showed a suspect shattering the front door with a hammer at about 3:30 a.m. that day, stealing comics locked in a glass case, and leaving the scene in a white vehicle.

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A second unrelated man later saw the broken shop door and walked in then made off with more than $250 in cash.

Wear was identified and arrested on Aug. 11, 2023. He pleaded guilty in the case on Jan. 12 through a plea deal.

He was sentenced on March 6 on:

  • two counts of third-degree assault – knowingly or recklessly causing injury,

  • one count of second-degree burglary of a dwelling, and

  • one count of criminal mischief for $2,000-$5,000

Eight other charges were dismissed by the district attorney’s office under the plea deal.

Wear was facing charges in two criminal cases around this incident, and was sentenced to five years in one case, and then sentenced to a consecutive four years in the second case for a total of nine years.

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According to the Boulder Police Department, detectives recovered all but five of the stolen comic books.

‘Everyone who works here is affected by this’

Wayne Winsett, owner of Time Warp Comics, said the lost comics were a “huge hit” in an interview with FOX31’s Samantha Spitz last year.

“That’s a lot of money. $13,000 may not seem like a lot of money to people, but we’re a small mom-and-pop shop and it hurts,” Winsett said. “It hurts us all. Everyone who works here is affected by this.”

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Winsett also told Spitz that it looked like Wear knew the locations of the more valuable comic books, thus being able to get in and out of the shop without getting caught.

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