BOSTON, Feb. 25, 2013—A Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted a Dorchester man of breaking into a West Roxbury resident’s car and trying to steal a GPS device, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

DENNIS J. WINSLOW (D.O.B. 5/1/64) was indicted for larceny under $250 and breaking and entering into a vehicle at night with intent to commit a felony. Jurors Thursday convicted him of larceny and breaking and entering with intent to commit a misdemeanor.

Judge Patrick Brady sentenced Winslow to the maximum on each charge – one year on the larceny charge followed by six months on the breaking and entering charge, for a total of a year and a half in a house of correction.

Assistant District Attorney Tonya Platt of Conley’s Major Felony Bureau introduced evidence and testimony to prove that Winslow gained entry to a motor vehicle on Garnet Road shortly after midnight on Jan. 10, 2012, stealing a large quantity of change and a Garmin GPS device.

After a spate of car breaks in the area, a resident near the scene called Boston Police when he observed Winslow, dressed in dark clothes and a dark cap, checking door handles on several cars along Garnet Road. That resident updated police with a report that Winslow had actually entered one of the cars and was shining some sort of light inside.

Boston Police responded to the scene and soon spotted Winslow – dressed all in black, with a black baseball cap – in the fenced-in yard of a nearby home. The officers observed his pockets to be full, with $116 in change and a GPS device hanging out. In light of the description and facts they had received, the officers believed Winslow to be involved in criminal activity.

Winslow stated that a friend had given him the GPS device and dropped him off in the area. The officers turned on the device and checked the “home” location: It gave a Garnet Road address. Officers spoke with the resident of that address, who identified the device and the car from which it was taken as his own. Later, the resident notified police that the change he kept in his car’s ashtray was missing.

Jillian Quigley was the DA’s victim-witness advocate on the case. Winslow was represented by attorney John Wood.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.