David Andrew Brainard, 29, Minot, was sentenced last week to three years in prison, with a requirement that he serve 18 months, for burglarizing a storage unit in Minot last September.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed with the court, a man who rented the storage unit informed police that someone had cut through the back wall of his storage unit from an adjoining unit and stolen his items. Law enforcement used DNA on several coffee cups left behind in the adjoining storage unit to identify Brainard and his co-defendant, Jeanette Kaseman. The coffee cups were from Classic Rock Coffee, which had opened after the adjoining storage unit was last rented. Swabs from the coffee cups were analyzed at the State Crime Lab and were a match to Brainard and Kaseman, both of whom already had samples on file in the DNA Database. The officers obtained warrants to obtain further samples from Brainard and Kaseman, which were found to be a match.

Judge Richard Hagar also ordered Brainard to pay $1,100 in court costs. Restitution in the case is reserved for 90 days.

Hagar also sentenced Brainard to 360 days in jail for possession of drug paraphernalia and two years of supervised probation. He also ordered Brainard to obtain a chemical dependency evaluation and to pay $125 in court costs for the Class C felony charge.

Kaseman was sentenced for the burglary in April. She is serving a sentence for that and numerous other offenses at the New England Women’s Prison.