Samuel Brinton, ex DOE employee, sentenced to 180 days in Las Vegas airport luggage theft case

The non-binary former Energy Department official caught on video stealing luggage was ordered to pay the victim $3,670 and received a 180-day suspended prison sentence after pleading ‘no contest’ to theft .

Samuel Brinton, 35, who uses she/she pronouns, was sentenced Wednesday in Las Vegas, Nevada, eight months after seizing a passenger’s bags at Harry Reid International Airport.

Brinton faced felony theft charges, amounting to less than $1,200 in stolen items. They originally faced a charge of theft, as police said the amount stolen was $3,670.

Brinton — who was responsible for nuclear fuel and radioactive waste — was also told by a judge to stay out of trouble, according to Las Vegas court records.

A suspended sentence means the former Energy Department employee will not be immediately forced to serve a prison sentence and may have to go through probation.

The situation began when a woman traveling from Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. to Harry Reid Airport on July 6 said she couldn’t find any luggage.

The woman told officials that a piece checked at United Airlines was missing and later filed a police report.

According to officials, the suitcase was worth $320 and was branded “Away.”

The luggage contained more than $3,000 in stolen items, including jewelry, makeup, contact lenses and clothing, documents said.

When officials began the investigation and looked at security footage, they noticed Brinton behaving strangely – then identified as “the suspect.”

Officers “observed several nonverbal cues, or anomalies in body language, from the suspect that caught his attention,” the warrant said.

“To be precise, Brinton took the victim’s luggage off the carousel and looked at the label. Then placed it back on the carousel and looked in all directions for anyone who might be watching or approaching, the order continues.

“Retracting the carousel and performing the same behavior by looking around before quickly walking away with it,” the document states.

The case went unsolved for months until an officer saw a news article in November identifying Brinton as a suspect in another luggage theft.

Brinton was involved in a robbery at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport on Sept. 16, and their photos matched the suspect in the Las Vegas incident.

Detectives continued to investigate and found photos on Brinton’s Instagram of them in the same T-shirt in a photo posted on July 6.

The case against Brinton in Minneapolis is currently pending.

If found guilty in that case, the former Department of Energy officials could face up to five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.

According to the complaint in that incident, Brinton removed a tag from a woman’s luggage and walked out. The items inside were appraised at $2,325.

American Airlines later confirmed that Brinton had not checked any luggage on their flight from Washington DC

The victim was shown footage of Brinton with the briefcase, she confirmed it was her luggage.

In addition to the charges in Las Vegas and Minneapolis, Brinton is also under investigation after a fashion designer saw photos of them in what looked like her one of a kind clothes that she lost in a bag in 2018.

Asya Khamsin said her bag went missing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and she believes Brinton is the culprit.

Khamsin saw the clothing during the ongoing coverage of Brinton and reported the theft to Houston police in December.

Khamsin claimed that Brinton has been seen several times in her tailored outfits since her luggage went missing five years ago.

The Houston-based fashion guru shared side-by-side photos of herself wearing one of her outfits alongside a photo that surfaced of Brinton in what she says is the same one.

Since then, numerous photos have surfaced showing Brinton seemingly wearing some of Khamsin’s unique outfits.

The patterns, while similar, sit differently on Brinton and there’s no evidence that the items are the same – and it’s unclear if they’ve changed.

Before he was fired, Brinton was deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposal, according to the Office of Nuclear Energy website.

Shortly after a warrant was issued for their arrest in Las Vegas, the department announced they were no longer employees.

Last summer they were hired for the first time in the department.