Richard Ricci
Wednesday, July 31, 2002
SALT LAKE CITY — A former handyman named by police as a potential suspect in the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart pleaded not guilty Wednesday to unrelated burglary and theft charges.
Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart, has repeatedly said he thinks Richard Ricci, 48, was somehow involved in his 14-year-old daughter's disappearance.
Smart was in the courtroom for Ricci's appearance. In an unusual move, he and a family spokesman met privately for 25 minutes in a court office with Ricci's wife, Angela, and her father, David Morse Sr.
AP Elizabeth Smart "I just wanted to talk to her. I just wanted to plead with her," Smart said as he left the courthouse. "I am doing everything I can for my daughter."
Angela Ricci, who left the court without commenting, maintained her husband's innocence, Smart said.
The teen was taken at gunpoint from her bedroom early June 5. Her 9-year-old sister, who had been sleeping in the same bed with Elizabeth, witnessed the abduction.
Ricci worked in the Smart home as a handyman last year but has not been charged in connection with the abduction. He has said he had nothing to do with it.
Ricci is being held in maximum security at the Utah State Prison on the burglary and theft charges, as well as on an alleged parole violation.
He appeared in shackles in the heavily secured courtroom for the three-minute hearing and entered his innocent plea on the state charges.
Prosecutors allege Ricci stole $3,500 worth of items from the Smarts' home in June 2001. A search of Ricci's trailer last month turned up jewelry and other items that allegedly belonged to the Smarts, authorities have said. He is also charged with taking jewelry and about $300 in cash from another home in the Smarts' wealthy neighborhood.
Ricci, who worked as a handyman in both homes, admitted committing those crimes, authorities said.
In addition to the burglary charges he faces in state court, Ricci has been charged in federal court with bank robbery.