Man charged in theft of Jackie Robinson statue from Wichita park pleads guilty

A Wichita man has admitted to stealing a valuable, life-sized bronze statue of baseball great Jackie Robinson from a Wichita park in January.

Ricky Angel Alderete, 45, pleaded guilty to four crimes Thursday at his arraignment: aggravated criminal damage to property; theft of property or services valued at $25,000 to $100,000; making false information; and identity theft.

Alderete is scheduled for sentencing on July 1 by Sedgwick County District Judge Tyler Roush, court records show. The maximum sentence he could receive is 19 years, 1 month in prison plus six months in jail, Sedgwick County District Attorney Office spokesman Dan Dillon said by email. The judge could also order Alderete to pay restitution of $41,500, the amount the statue originally cost.

Wichita police arrested Alderete after the 275-pound statue was cut off above its cleats early on Jan. 25 and hauled away from McAdams Park, 1329 E. 16th St. The statue, unveiled in the park in 2021, had been a main gathering place for Wichita nonprofit League 42, a local youth baseball league that strives to make playing the game affordable, especially for urban families. The league, which serves about 600 kids in Wichita, also provides mentoring, tutoring and other resources.

“One part of this unfortunate saga has been put to bed,” League 42 founder and executive director Bob Lutz said in a Facebook post Thursday noting the plea.

Surveillance video that captured the theft showed at least three suspects. But it’s unclear whether anyone else will be charged.

“No other cases in connection with the statue theft are scheduled in our office,” Dillon said Friday.

Wichita police Chief Joe Sullivan said previously he is “confident” Alderete’s arrest “is only the first” and that “there will be a lot more to come.”

The statue was found two days after the theft, burned in a trash can at Garvey Park, about seven miles away from where it was stolen. It was valued at $75,000.

Alderete, in a police interview after his arrest, told investigators he and others stole the statue and turned it over to metal scrappers but said he “was never paid for his part,” a probable cause affidavit released by the court says. Alderete told investigators someone else cut the statue off at the legs with a concrete saw and he helped push the statue over and “load it into the truck” that hauled it away from the park, the affidavit says.

None of the burned statue was salvageable but the cleats that the thieves left in McAdams Park were donated last month to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, where they will be displayed. The statue will be replaced, though; Lutz previously told The Eagle the organization still has a mold from the original sculptor, the late John Parsons, who died in 2022, so it can be recast.

Since the theft, thousands of dollars have poured into the League 42 organization to help pay for the replacement. Major League Baseball and its 30 teams also stepped up with funds to replace the statue.

Robinson, who wore number 42, was the first Black player in Major League Baseball, breaking the color barrier in 1947. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. League 42 is named after him. The life-sized statue of Robinson represented the league’s core values.

Alderete remained in the Sedgwick County Jail on Friday morning. Two of the crimes he pleaded guilty to — criminal damage to property and theft — are connected to the stolen Jackie Robinson statue. The other two crimes, making false information and identity theft, “led to Alderete’s identification and arrest,” Dillon said.

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