SAN DIEGO -- A burglary charge against San Diego State University basketball standout Lorrenzo Wade was dismissed Thursday by a judge, who ordered a co-defendant to stand trial but urged lawyers to resolve the engineering student's case without a trial.

Wade was accused of helping Brian Cepeda Ware remove a flat-screen television from the College Area apartment of an SDSU student around 4 a.m. on Sept. 21. He was suspended indefinitely from the basketball program and has missed the first seven games of this season.

After stressing that skilled athletes would not receive preferential treatment in his courtroom, Judge Charles Rogers said the law on burglary requires an intent to commit a crime when someone enters a structure.

"I find that Mr. Wade did not have that intent when he entered that structure," the judge said.

Wade, a 6-foot-6 senior from Las Vegas, was a first-team All-Mountain West Conference forward last season and is considered a prospect to play in the NBA.

His attorney, Richard Muir, said outside court he would contact SDSU Athletic Director Jeff Schemmel as soon as possible about the ruling. Schemmel had previously told him that there would be an outside chance Wade would be reinstated if the case was resolved in his favor.

In testimony Wednesday, SDSU sophomore Corrine Boatwright said she went to sleep around midnight and awoke to male voices at her door and then heard people inside her apartment in the Talmade Park Row complex.

Boatwright, whose two female roommates were visiting neighbors at the time, testified that she hid in her bedroom, waiting for the intruders to leave.

The young woman, whose grandmother was killed by a burglar, said that when the men left, she got some pepper spray and went outside her unit and confronted Wade and Ware, who was holding her roommate's television.

Ware put the television down in the parking lot when he was confronted, she said.

The judge called Ware's action that of "a guilty conscience."

Boatwright said she grabbed the television set and took it back into her apartment. Police were called the next day after the father of the TV's owner drove to San Diego and was told of the incident, she said.

Other witnesses said Wade and Ware drank heavily that night. When their group returned to the apartment complex, a single car was taking up two parking spaces, so Wade went to Boatwright's apartment to get the vehicle moved, according to testimony.

The witnesses testified that Wade called out "hello" and knocked on the door, which caused the door to swing open. Boatwright said doors in the apartment needed to be slammed to shut properly.

Both men eventually conceded that they entered the apartment, according to San Diego police Detective Daniel Caropreso.

When he was told that fingerprints were found on the television, Wade said he might have removed a white cable but later equivocated, Caropreso said.

"(Wade) might have or might not have unhooked that white cable," the judge said. "We'll probably never know."

Rogers said he "was grieved" to order a trial for Ware, who is a senior at SDSU and the president of the local chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. The charge could have "catastrophic" consequences for the young man, the judge said.

Ware will receive a trial date at his next hearing, scheduled for Jan. 7.

His lawyer, Neil Besse, said the removal of the television was a "prank" meant to prompt the apartment occupants to move the car.

The judge said Ware's alleged conduct was not what a felony burglary charge was intended for, adding, "I urge all counsel to work toward a resolution of this case that is a just one."

As for Boatwright, she was a "terrific witness" who was "squared away," Rogers said.

"People have a right to be secure when they're asleep in their apartments," the judge said.

The District Attorney's Office has the right to refile a charge against Wade, but. Muir said that wouldn't happen because the judge is highly respected.