Vincent Charles Roberts II will spend one year in prison for stealing more than $50,000 in gold from the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro.

A Washington County judge sentenced Roberts, 35, of Aurora, on Wednesday, Aug. 26, to one year of prison followed by one year of post-prison supervision, KOIN reported.

The sentence closes a case that began on the morning of Dec. 24, 2023, when Roberts used a sledgehammer to break into the museum along Northwest Groveland Drive, off Highway 26.

He smashed display cases and stole nearly all the gold from the exhibit, the Washington County District Attorney's Office said.

Deputies responded to a break-in alarm around 2:20 a.m. that Christmas Eve.

They found a broken window and footprints leading south from the building, the Washington County Sheriff's Office said at the time. A K-9 track failed to catch the suspect.

"It's like a piece of Oregon history that's just gone," Washington County Deputy David Huey told KOIN in December 2023, days after the burglary.

Investigators found Roberts' DNA at the scene, according to prosecutors. Roberts later tried to sell stolen items at pawnshops in Salem and Woodburn, but shop owners recognized the pieces from a sheriff's office news release and alerted law enforcement.

Investigators also recovered suspected stolen items from a precious metals buyer near Salem, The Oregonian reported.

During a separate encounter with police before his arrest, officers found gold pieces from the museum on Roberts, along with materials used to melt gold, prosecutors said.

A Washington County grand jury indicted Roberts in May 2024. The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office arrested him on June 27, 2024, after an investigation that stretched across several Oregon counties and into Vancouver, Washington.

A jury found Roberts guilty on Aug. 7 of second-degree burglary, first-degree aggravated theft, first-degree theft and first-degree criminal mischief. He pleaded not guilty in September 2024.

Much of the gold was never recovered. At the time of Roberts' 2024 arrest, investigators said many of the historical gold display items taken from the museum had not been found.