18-year-old pleads not guilty in series of home burglaries in Newport Beach

An 18-year-old man pleaded not guilty to five felony burglary counts related to a months-long investigation of a series of residential break-ins in Newport Beach, police said.

Aquinas Arrigo Kasbar of Newport Beach entered the plea Tuesday to those charges and two misdemeanor counts of resisting a police officer and being in possession of burglary tools, court records show.

Kasbar was arrested Saturday night on suspicion of burglary, possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools, identity theft and resisting arrest, Newport Beach police said.

Search warrants served at various locations around the city, including a storage unit, uncovered “a large amount of stolen property valued in the several hundreds of thousands of dollars,” police said in a statement.

The five burglaries in question occurred between May 8 and Nov. 29 in the area around Balboa Island, according to police and court records.

Kasbar was booked into Orange County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 12.

Newport Beach detectives will be contacting victims of the burglaries in an effort to return the stolen property. Inquiries can be directed to Det. Sgt. Josh Comte at (949) 644-3765.

julia.sclafani@latimes.com

UPDATES:

11:50 a.m. Dec. 6: This article was updated with Kasbar’s not guilty plea.

This article was originally published at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 5.