Citation: Couple accused in nearly $1 million jewel heist were friends with late jewel owner
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – A woman who was inspired by and named a portion of her business after her late friend, former Western Kentucky University Provost Barbara Burch, is now accused along with her husband of planning and hiring people to rob Burch’s home just seven months after her death.
Monday, Bowling Green police charged Jeffery M. Weisman, 69, a wholesale jeweler, and his wife Patricia Boyer Weisman with complicity to first-degree robbery, complicity to kidnapping, complicity to second-degree assault and theft by unlawful taking of $10,000 or more but less than $1 million.
Patricia Weisman was the owner of Boyer Wholesale Jewelry Antiques and More, a business on Fairview Avenue that also included Barbara’s Tea Room, which according to a photo on the now closed business’s Facebook page is “dedicated to my dear late friend Barbara Burch, who had the original idea for this parlor.”
Police learned that the couple knew the late Barbara Burch, had inside knowledge of a safe inside the Burch home as well as the security features of the home, according to Jeffery Weisman’s arrest citation.
Burch died in January and is survived by her husband and son.
Just after 10:30 a.m. July 13, three men pretending to be delivery drivers knocked on the door of the Burch residence/home office, according to an arrest warrant. An employee who was working in the office answered the door and was met by a man who produced a gun.
The employee was knocked to the ground, tied up and sustained a broken bone, according to an arrest warrant.
Javier Nunez, 41, and Nicolas Cruz Palacios, 41, both of Old Hickory, Tenn., were charged Friday with first-degree robbery, kidnapping and second-degree assault in the incident. The men are accused of taking a safe containing about $1 million in antique jewelry from the home, according to Nunez’ arrest citation.
Both Nunez and Cruz Palacios made self incriminating statements to police, according to Nunez’ arrest warrant. Both men named a third person involved but gave different names for that third person.
One of the men involved spray painted an exterior surveillance camera while another wore a portable WiFi jammer during the robbery, according to the arrest warrant. That device caused technical glitches in some security cameras.
Nunez was on a phone inside the residence getting directions to the safe, according to his arrest warrant.
Nunez said he and others were involved in the robbery and that he had been approached by man, named Jeff, who said he owned the safe, according to the arrest warrant. Cruz Palacious, who lives with Nunez, said Nunez asked him to drive his van to Bowling Green. Cruz Palacious admitted to police he was involved in the robbery with a man he knows as Kevin.
All three men were lodged in the Warren County Regional Jail. Patricia Weisman has been charged and was treated for a medical condition before being arrested, Bowling Green police said in a release. On Wednesday she was booked into the Warren County Jail. Jeffery Weisman posted a $25,000 bond Tuesday, according to online jail records.
