A St. Paul man has admitted to trying to sell cut-up pieces of the F. Scott Fitzgerald bronze statue in February, four days after it was discovered that someone swiped it from outside a Cathedral Hill building where the renowned author had attended school.

Dustan Charles Schmitt, 37, pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court on Friday to the sole count of receiving stolen property in connection with the theft of the 4-foot-tall statue at the Academy Professional Building at 25 N. Dale St. No one else has been charged in the theft case.

Dustan Charles Schmitt (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Although some pieces of the statue were recovered, others remain missing, including the head, St. Paul police said Monday.

Schmitt reached an agreement with prosecutors that also resolves three other felony cases and calls for five years of probation at sentencing, which is scheduled for Oct. 6. The plea deal includes restitution in the statue case.

The statue of a young Fitzgerald was installed on the side of the steps leading to the front door of the Academy Professional Building in September 2006. It is the former site of St. Paul Academy, the private school Fitzgerald attended for three years and where he published his first work of fiction.

Ed Conley bought the building about 20 years ago and commissioned artist Aaron Dysart for the statue, which cost about $20,000 in total and depicted a young Fitzgerald seated with a couple of books in his lap.

Sculptor Aaron Dysart of St. Paul installs a statue of F. Scott Fitzgerald on Sept. 25, 2006, at 25 N. Dale St. in St. Paul, a former site of St. Paul Academy, the private school Fitzgerald attended for three years and where he published his first work of fiction. (Joe Oden / Pioneer Press)

Blow torch found

St. Paul police on Feb. 11 asked anyone with information on the statue theft to come forward.

A Northern Metal Recycling employee contacted police that afternoon to report a man had attempted to sell the statue, which had been cut up into pieces. The employee was able to hold onto some of the pieces before the man, who had given his name as “Dustin Schmitt,” had fled, the complaint said.

Investigators met with Northern Metal Recycling management to recover parts of the statue, along with a metal plaque and bird that had been reported missing on Jan. 26 by Unity Church in St. Paul, near the building where the statue was stolen.

The company had the license plate of the Jeep the suspect arrived in with another person.

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St. Paul police SWAT officers carried out a search warrant at Schmitt’s home on McLean Avenue near Johnson Parkway on Feb. 14 and arrested him. Police found a blow torch in a Jeep parked behind the home, and three small torch heads in Schmitt’s bedroom, the complaint said.

As part of Schmitt’s plea deal, he admitted to a charge of first-degree drug possession in a June case he picked up while out of custody on a $20,000 bond in the statue case. Two previous cases involving fifth-degree drug possession and auto theft will be dismissed at his October sentencing, per the plea deal.

Court records show that Schmitt has several criminal convictions that date back more than 10 years. He has three pending misdemeanor theft cases — one each in Anoka, Dakota and Washington counties — and two criminal sexual conduct cases pending in Rice County, where he once lived.