TAMPA – A lengthy police investigation into the April
burglary of a former USF basketball player’s apartment resulted in no charges
being filed, but the interviews from a 23-page police
report show a Bulls backcourt awkwardly fractured, with players admitting to stealing
from teammates, staking out each other’s apartments and accusing others in a
larger theft.

Reserve guard Gaby Belardo had already announced he was
transferring from the Bulls when property estimated at $7,760 -– including two TVs, a
laptop, video games and $2,000 worth of clothes -– was taken from his Tampa apartment.
Suspecting three of his USF teammates, he called USF coach Stan Heath instead
of calling police, and the coach called a team meeting.

"I truly believe that the team is not involved," coach
Stan Heath told police in a May interview. "I have talked to several players in
depth, and no one seems to have any information. I also searched the room of
each player, looking for Gaby’s things, but we didn’t find anything."

Heath thought the burglary might be an extension of what
he told police were "pranks" among the players last season, with shoes being
taken from lockers and left in the shower. "None of the pranks were ever as
serious as this," he told police.

During that team meeting, Belardo had asked another former guard
who had been dismissed from the team, Mike Mercer, to watch USF star guard
Dominique Jones’ apartment, "to see if anyone takes his stuff out."

Belardo told police that Mercer called him during the
meeting, telling him that Jones’ girlfriend, Alicia Green, left the apartment with "two very large garbage bags." Green would later tell police under oath that
she was planning to do laundry with Jones, and the bags were full of his dirty
clothes.

She told police that Jones’ father, Norman, called her
while she was in the apartment and told her a teammate was accusing Jones of
stealing from him. At his request, she went through the bag. "I recognized
everything in the bag as his," she told police. "I never saw anything in his
room that didn’t belong. To my knowledge, Dominique is not involved."

Police then had a county judge sign off on a subpoena to
Sprint, asking that the phone company release stored text messages from three
cell phones linked to Jones. A limited number of text messages were available
and not from the week of the theft, but after a review of those, the police
report states that "(police) did not locate any incriminating messages
regarding this incident. There was no mention of the victim or the burglary at
all."

Belardo had told police he suspected three teammates, all
current USF players -– Jones and guards Anthony Crater and Justin Leemow –-
because a week before the burglary, after another team meeting following
another theft, they had returned to him a necklace and watch that had he had
told Heath were missing.

After that
meeting, Belardo told police he got a text message from Crater, asking him to
come to his room. Jones and Leemow were also there, and he said Crater told him "Don’t ask me where this came from, but your stuff is in that drawer over
there."

"This is
why I suspect Dominique and Anthony,” Belardo told police.

Belardo, however,
gave police conflicting information in another instance, initially telling them
that Jones had taken an I-Pod of his that he later found in Jones’ locker. Six
weeks later, he told a different story, saying that he had given the I-Pod to
Jones with the understanding he would buy it, and that he took it back from
Jones’ locker because he hadn’t paid him for it. The report stated there was a "civil
matter" between the two over the I-Pod.

To complicate matters more, guard Jesus Verdejo was living with Belardo,
telling police he had been kicked out of his apartment for not paying rent.
Crater said he and Verdejo had previously argued because a necklace of
Verdejo’s had been broken while Crater was wearing it at a nightclub. Crater
told police that Verdejo had asked him to pay him $600 for the necklace, that
he was upset because it "was worth only like $100." He then admitted taking
Belardo’s necklace and watch from the apartment, thinking they belonged to
Verdejo.

"I took the necklace and watch, thinking it was Jesus’ stuff," he told police. "I was wrong for that, but I was still pissed at him."

Verdejo, reached by phone Thursday, said his only items taken in the larger theft from the
apartment were clothes and shoes. He said he did not
suspect his teammates in the theft and remains friends with them.

"I don’t think any of them had anything to do with it," he said. "We’re a team.
We’re like a family. I’m still really close to all the guys and still in touch
with them. I hope they have a great season."

Heath told police that he asked his players to take polygraph tests to further
prove their innocence. Crater agreed, though Jones declined after consulting with his father.

"I don’t have any involvement in this," Jones told police in a May interview. "I don’t even know why I have been accused. … (Belardo) is not my favorite
person, and I’m sure that I am not his favorite, either. … I wish I could help
you out but I don’t have any information."

Heath, returning a phone message Thursday night after USF's 65-58 win against Davidson in South Carolina, reiterated that his players were not involved in the larger theft from Belardo's apartment.

"I had several conversations with the police, and in the last conversation, they told me they had fully exonerated my team," said Heath, who declined further comment. "My players had nothing to do with it."