Two men implicated in a string of petty thefts stretching back to November 2007 made appearances Thursday in Flathead County District Court and entered opposite pleas to the same burglary.

David William Rodriguez, 19, pleaded guilty to burglarizing the old Eastside Brick building in Kalispell during a change of plea hearing while 19-year-old Joshua Charles Kelly pleaded innocent to the break-in at his arraignment.

Prosecutors allege that in December 2007, Rodriguez, Kelly and a third man pried open a door at the Eastside Brick building in the 700 block of Fifth Avenue East and made off with snowboards and computer equipment from at least two offices.

Rodriguez, who entered a guilty plea Thursday to burglary a common scheme, also admitted to the November 2007 theft of a laptop computer from a car on Juniper Bend Drive and a pair of March 2008 break-ins to the Best Bet Casino on U.S. 93 South.

According to court records, Rodriguez and two other men used a large rock to twice break through the casino's glass door and steal alcohol on separate occasions.

Rodriguez will be responsible for paying restitution to the victims in all three cases, prosecutors said.

Kelly, who is charged with one count of burglary in connection with the alleged Eastside Brick break-in, is also awaiting trial on assault with a weapon charges.

He is accused of beating his roommate with a pool cue during a June 2008 disagreement over rent.

At least five other men have been implicated in the string of petty thefts and burglaries.

Cody Alan Dow, 18, has been charged with burglary in connection with the Eastside Brick break-in and 21-year-old Curtis Lee Bowers is charged with the burglary of a Whitefish convenience store and the break-in to a Kalispell thrift shop.

But 20-year-old Timothy Christopher Beck appears to be at the center of the rash of thefts and burglaries. He pleaded guilty last month to felony theft and felony criminal mischief for stealing a Toyota Tundra pickup truck in late July 2007 in Kalispell and then trashing it while mudbogging in a field off KM Ranch Road.

Two other men were arrested and charged in connection with that incident.

Prosecutors allege Beck also was complicit in the burglary of the Whitefish convenience store and the break-in to the Kalispell thrift shop with Bowers, the two Best Bet Casino burglaries and the November 2007 theft from a vehicle with Rodriguez, and several other thefts and burglaries across the Flathead Valley.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com