August 23, 2011 Shoplifter cut by razors opening up packages www.privateofficer.com
One defendant, Debra S. Smith, 37, of Corbin, rode around the store in a motorized shopping cart, Richmond Police officer Daniel Ellis said, but she got up and walked after being handcuffed.
Ellis’ testimony was heard as Smith and Herschell Hall, 46, of Gray in Knox County, were given preliminary hearings before Judge Brandy O. Brown. Co-defendant Jeannie R. Crosslin, 36, of Corbin, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Aug. 24.
Brown found probable cause to have the charges against Hall and Smith, who Ellis said confessed to taking more than $1,150 in merchandise, heard by a grand jury.
Ellis said he was dispatched Aug. 7 to Meijer after store employees reported that a man and two women had been observed taking merchandise, carrying it to a parked vehicle and then returning to the store.
The officer said he and a Meijer employee followed Hall from the parking lot into the store where they encountered Crosslin and Smith headed toward the door.
Smith’s shopping cart contained several Meijer bags stuffed with merchandise, including watches, pocket knives and clothing, Ellis said. She also was wearing a pair of tennis shoes taken from store racks but not purchased, he said.
In addition to “expensive fishing lures” and watches from Meijer, when police searched the car in which Hall had been placing merchandise, Ellis said they found items worth “a few hundred dollars” that appeared to have come from other stores.
The Meijer items were returned, but the others are being held as evidence, he said.
Crosslin did not confess to taking items from Meijer, Ellis said, but her hands were cut and bleeding and blood was found on the items in Smith’s shopping cart. Razor blades were found in Smith’s purse, the officer said, but no cuts or bleeding was found on her or Hall.
Smith also faces a drug paraphernalia charge based on the razor blades and a spoon coated with drug residue found in her purse, Ellis said.
Crosslin walked alongside the cart as she and Smith took items, store employees told police, Ellis said. Their activities were recorded on store video, the officer said, but he had not reviewed it.
Brown refused to consider reducing the $2,500 cash bonds under which Hall and Smith were being held in the Madison County Detention Center because they are wanted in other counties. Smith has two theft charges pending in Knox County, the judge noted.
Crosslin was released Aug. 8 after posting her $2,500 bond, according to the jail’s website.
Burglary charges
A grand jury will hear first-degree burglary charges against two Madison County men who a state trooper said took three televisions, a handgun, a video gaming system and a digital camera from a home while the homeowner’s sister-in-law sunbathed outside.
The items, including a 52-inch television taken from the home in rural northeastern Madison County, were valued at about $3,900, KSP Trooper Albert LaGrange said Wednesday during a preliminary hearing for William Robert Lawson, 33, and Brian Keith Webb, 32.
Although the woman did not hear the men arrive, she heard them depart in a pickup truck and noticed “bulky items” under a sheet she recognized had came from the house, LaGrange said. She also recognized Lawson and Webb, with whom she was acquainted, the trooper testified.
Another witness who recognized Webb as a former schoolmate and is a friend of the homeowner told the trooper she saw him driving down Union City Road in his pickup with a large-screen television covered by bed linen, LaGrange said.
The trooper said he telephoned Lawson, who denied participating in the burglary. When Lawson did not come to the KSP post in Richmond for an interview as agreed, LaGrange said he arrested both Lawson and Webb.
Interviewed in the trooper’s cruiser, Lawson admitted to participating in the burglary but said he waited in the truck while Webb went in the house and took the homeowner’s belongings, LaGrange testified.
Webb denied involvement, the trooper said.
None of the items have been recovered, according to LaGrange, who said Lawson told him they had been taken to Lexington but he could not remember where.
Lawson and Webb are both classified as low risk by the pre-trial release office, their attorneys told the judge, who agreed to lower their bonds to $10,000 cash or $20,000 property. Each had been held under $20,000 cash bonds.
- Leave a comment
- Posted under loss prevention
