Bend man jailed, items recovered from two burglaries

(Update: Comments from burglary victim, Bend PD background on stop)

A police traffic stop on a 37-year-old Bend man turned up a gun stolen in Deschutes River Woods, leading to a raid that found other stolen items from that burglary and another one in the Woodside Ranch area south of Bend, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said Friday.

“We’re not aware that the two houses are directly related,” Sgt. William Bailey said, “but following up on the stolen firearm, we executed a search warrant at Mr. Kline’s residence, where we located more property in the first burglary. Then, also, we recovered property in the burglary on Pine Vista Drive south of Bend.”

Bend police contacted the sheriff’s office on Monday to report they had stopped a vehicle being driven by Jesse Lynn Kline, sheriff’s Bailey said.

Bend police Sgt. Tom Pine said several deputies shared information with Bend police about a La Pine burglary and a suspect’s vehicle. An officer recognized Kline’s van from another crime last year and kept an eye out, spotting the van outside Ashley’s North, a restaurant along NE Third Street, and stopped Kline after he left for driving with a suspended license, Pine said.

During the stop, officers found Kline had a handgun reported stolen in a sheriff’s office case in the 19000 block of River Woods Drive, Bailey said.

Sheriff’s detectives served a search warrant at Kline’s home on Tuesday and found more property stolen in the DRW burglary, as well as items from a burglary in the 20000 block of Pine Vista Drive.

One of the victims, Torree Abrams, told NewsChannel 21 Friday that Kline broke her front window with a rock while the house was empty.

“I walked in, and it took me a little while to figure it out, because I fed the dog first,” she said. “I saw the computer was missing and thought, ‘Did my husband take it in because he got mad? And why did he make such a big mess?’ Then the dog went out the back door, which was wide open, and that’s when I knew.”

Abrams estimated Kline took about $5,000 worth of items, including a computer, jewelry and sensitive documents. She said she’s lived in the house for about 20 years, and nothing like this has ever happened.

“I was in shock, because we have a pretty quiet neighborhood and really long driveways,” she said. “Why would anyone go in? I was just in shock. It surprised me so much.”

She said she was able to identify most of her missing property in photos provided by the Bend Police Department and Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office.

Kline initially was arrested on two counts each of first-degree burglary, first-degree theft and second-degree criminal mischief.

Numerous other pending charges were listed Friday in Kline’s county jail record, including first-degree menacing, second- and fourth-degree assault, two counts of second-degree robbery, attempt to elude police by vehicle and on foot, two counts of recklessly endangering, reckless driving, unlawful use of a weapon, felon in possession of a weapon and criminal driving with a suspended or revoked license. His bail totaled more than $250,000.

In May 2017, Bend police said Kline robbed a couple at gunpoint in an alley, hitting one on the head, and then led an officer on a high-speed chase north on Highway 97. He then led Redmond officers on another chase before being found hiding in a yard and arrested.

Kline was arraigned on the district attorney’s initial eight-count charging document listing the new charges Friday afternoon. A trial has been scheduled for Aug. 1 on the 17 charges pending from last year’s crimes, court documents showed.