Man gets 15 years for Jackie Robinson statue theft

The Kansas man who pleaded guilty to stealing a Jackie Robinson statue from a Wichita youth baseball league earlier this year was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for multiple cases, police said.

Ricky Alderete, 45, had pleaded guilty in May to theft, related to the January disappearance of the statue, and other charges. He had faced more than 19 years.

The prosecutor’s office had said Alderete would be forced to pay $41,500 to League 42, the youth baseball organization named after the Brooklyn Dodgers legend.

There have been no more arrests connected to the case, but surveillance video showed at least two other people present when the statue was cut from its stand, leaving the bronze replicas of Robinson’s cleats behind. Parts of the statue were later found, charred from a fire, in another park seven miles away. Police have maintained they don’t believe the crime to be racially motivated but instead “by the financial gain of scrapping common metal.”

A police affidavit obtained by ESPN said that, days after the arrest, Alderete ran from police and entered a man’s home. The other man eventually escaped and got in touch with police, leading to Alderete’s arrest.

A new statue will be unveiled Monday at Wichita’s McAdams Park, where League 42 plays its games. Art Castings of Colorado, an art foundry 50 miles outside of Denver, created the replacement statue. The artist, John Parsons, died in 2022, but the foundry is using his original mold. MLB paid for the statue’s replacement.

A GoFundMe page set up by the league raised nearly $200,000 before the fundraising link was closed Feb. 5, less than two weeks from when the statue went missing. Bob Lutz, League 42’s executive director, estimated that League 42 received between $500,000 and $600,000 in total.

“The Jackie Robinson statue is a cherished symbol of inspiration, not only for the youth who benefit from the many programs offered by League 42, but also for the entire community of Wichita,” Chief Joe Sullivan said in a statement from the Wichita Police Department. “The sentencing of Ricky Alderete represents an important step in ensuring that our community receives the justice that it deserves.

“We are grateful to the members of the community and all of our law enforcement partners that made it possible for us to hold this individual accountable for the theft of the beloved Jackie Robinson statue.”