SLIPPERY ROCK — Only two of the seven senior citizens from Butler County and across the state identified one of the two Florida men, who are father and son, charged with 2018 distraction-style burglaries at their homes at a preliminary hearing Friday.

Those identifications combined with security camera photos and records of car rentals, hotel stays, bank deposits and cellphone use proved to be enough evidence for Steven Nichols, 53, and Archie Marino, 35, of Florida to be held for court on numerous burglary and theft charges.

District Judge Joseph Nash ordered all charges filed against the duo by the state Attorney General’s office to proceed to Common Pleas Court. Nash said he wasn’t necessarily convinced of guilt, but he didn’t have to be for the preliminary hearing. He said the phone records and other records were enough to send the cases to court.

Nichols is facing 17 felony and misdemeanor charges including six counts of burglary and theft, one count of attempted burglary, attempted theft and corrupt organizations, and two counts of conspiracy. Marino is facing four counts of burglary and theft, two counts of conspiracy and one count of corrupt organizations.

The charges stem from incidents that took place from August through November 2018.

The first five alleged victims who testified in the five-hour hearing said a man posing as a utility worker came to their homes unannounced and talked to them about phone, water or electrical work. When that man left, most of the victims said they discovered that cash, jewelry and valuable coins had been taken from their safes or bedroom drawers. None of those witnesses were able to identify the men involved, even though Nichols and Marino were present.

Those victims are Shirley Heeter, 90, of Prospect; Janet Eisler, 86, of Prospect; Mary Ann Haener, 84, of Erie; Gloria Rohall, 87, of Latrobe in Westmoreland County; and Ralph Marino, 69, of Scranton in Lackawanna County.

Eisler said on Aug. 27, 2018 she was talking to one man, who said there was a problem with her electric bill. She said she walked into her bedroom to get a bill and surprised a "jerk“ who was hiding behind the door. She said her small rat terrier later bit one of the men “hard” on his foot, sending him yelling “your dog bit me, your dog bit me,” as he ran outside. She said she didn’t see either man in court. Nothing was stolen in that incident.

Heeter said a man claiming to work for an electrical company came to her home on the same day and said he wanted to check her property boundary lines. She said he never stopped talking, but “some of his stories were really absurd.” She said a second man suddenly appeared, but both eventually left. She looked around her house, but nothing appeared to be missing.

Later, she said her sister called and asked if she had been robbed after seeing a news report about a burglary. She said she called state police, who told her to check the house again. It was then when she found boxes of jewelry she had left in her bedroom were empty. The rings that were missing were worth $1,100, she said.

Some of the victims said they asked the man who approached them, later identified as Marino, for identification, but he said he left it in his car and never showed it to them. Some said they just assumed he worked for a utility company.

In addition, some of the victims said the man they spoke with was talking to someone else on a phone during the incidents

The first alleged victim to identify Marino was Gertrude Pezzoni, 89, of Blairsville in Westmoreland County.

She said he knocked on her door Nov. 19 shortly after she returned from retrieving her mail from her mailbox down the street. He said he had to check her electric box because he had to work on a transformer located in her back yard. She said she asked him for identification, and he said he doesn’t like wearing it and left it in his car.

She said she took him to the electric box in her basement and they remained there for about 20 minutes. She became suspicious when he asked her to turn on the water.

“I think you better leave,” she said she told him under questioning by Deputy Attorney General Summer Carroll.

She called her neighbor whose home is connected to the same transformer and asked if a man came to her home. Her neighbor said no one came to her home. Pezzoni said she then looked around her house and found all the drawers in her bedroom open. Missing was a sapphire diamond necklace, a sapphire necklace and a diamond ring. She said her less valuable jewelry was not taken.

“They left all my Avon rings,” Pezzoni said. Her insurance company paid her $1,000 for the loss.

“I’d say that’s him,” she said, under cross examination by Marino’s attorney, Bruce Carsia of Pittsburgh. “I was with him for almost a half-hour.”

Pezzoni said later a neighbor came to her house with a picture of Marino on her cellphone.

Theodore Czekaj, 84, of Mount Pleasant in Westmoreland County was the other victim who identified Marino. He said he just returned home on Nov. 7 when Marino knocked on his door and said he wanted to check his electric box because the power was going to be shut off. He said he assumed the visit was related some sewer system work being done in the area.

He said he took Marino into the basement and showed him the box. Marino had a portable radio that that made noise throughout the ordeal, he said. The two talked face-to-face for about 15 minutes before Marino suddenly left and got into a tan or cream colored car parked across the street that drove away quickly, he said.

“I felt this is not ordinary,” Czekaj said. He said he looked in his closet and found his safe open with about $1,700 missing.

Under cross examination by Nichols’ attorney, Patrick Casey of Butler, Czekaj said his son was sent a cellphone photo of Marino from a friend. His son’s friend reported getting the photo from a neighbor, whose security camera took the photo on her porch, he said.

Detective Adam Hardner of the Millcreek Township Police Department in Erie County and Aaron Vitale, a special agent in the Attorney General’s office, said they had never before seen safes opened as skillfully as the safes in these burglaries. They said the pins that connect the door to the body of the safes were removed and no other damage was done.

Hardner said he contacted Vitale after his investigation into one of the burglaries revealed that similar distraction-style burglaries had taken place in Prospect.

He said he also learned that Nichols and Marino were suspects in similar burglaries in Wisconsin, and a bulletin with both of their photos was being circulated by a Michigan-based law enforcement network.

Vitale said his investigation found that the pair fly to different parts of the country, rent vehicles, spend a few days committing burglaries and then leave.

He said he obtained records of Nichols’ and Marino’s cellphone use from Verizon, rental car records from Avis, and hotel stays from credit cards.

Using those records, Vitale said he determined that Marino’s former wife lives in the Greater Pittsburgh area, and he was in Pittsburgh Nov. 7 for an appearance in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. He said Marino’s photo was taken by a Ring doorbell camera in Mount Pleasant on the same day.

A silver colored 2019 Kia Sorento rented by Nichols at Pittsburgh International Airport on Aug. 26 matched the description of a vehicle identified in one of the burglaries, Vitale said. A silver Chevrolet Equinox rented by Nichols in Detroit, Mich., and returned in Pittsburgh was in the Ring photo with Marino, he said.

He said Marino wore the same hat and blue vest in all the burglaries.

Phone records show Nichols’ cellphone communicated with a cellphone tower near the homes of Heeter and Eisler, who live about two miles apart, on Aug. 27, which is the day burglaries took place at their homes, Vitale said.

He reviewed records of Nichols’ phone using cellphone towers near the other victims’ homes as well.

Vitale said he found records of Nichols’ credit card transactions for hotels and rental cars around the time and location of several of the burglaries.

He also said he found records of suspicious checks written to Nichols and a woman believed to be his wife from three businesses they own in Florida. One of the businesses, National Rare Coins LLC, is a pawn shop, he said.

Two checks for $6,258 each from another one of those businesses, Hummer LLC, were issued to Nichols and the woman on Aug. 27, the day of the Prospect burglaries, he said.

Vitale said he found those and other deposits suspicious because he could not determine a source of income for Nichols, Marino or the woman and many of the deposits were less than $10,000. Banks filed transaction reports for deposits of $10,000 or more, he said.

Vitale said he wasn’t able to determine the nature of a third business called 3030 Northeast 42nd Street, which is the address of Nichols’ “multi-million dollar” waterside home with a dock in Fort Lauderdale.