HURRICANE – Police responding to a report of a disorderly person in Hurricane Tuesday caught a break in an active theft investigation when they recognized some individuals from surveillance footage of an incident that had occurred two weeks earlier.
On Jan. 18, police responded to a report of criminal mischief at Zion Gate Estates where a change machine in the laundry room had been broken into, according to a probable cause statement filed by the Hurricane City Police Department in support of the arrest.
During the incident, $405 was stolen from the machine, the report stated, and the damage to the machine was reported to be $3,500.
Officers reviewed video surveillance footage showing several people in the laundry room on the night of the incident.
Police got the break they were looking for Feb. 2 when officers responded to a disorderly person report, according to the report. When they arrived, they noticed that the individuals looked very similar to the suspects in the laundry room surveillance footage.
“After reviewing the video,” the arresting officer wrote, “it was confirmed these were the suspects in this case.”
Two of the suspects were identified as 36-year-old Dwight Jack Davis and 25-year-old Michelle Taylor.
Davis and Taylor initially denied involvement in the incident but both later admitted to being a lookout, the report stated. However, other suspects in the incident identified Davis as the one who broke into the machine, and Taylor as the lookout who also obtained some of the stolen money.
Davis and Taylor were arrested and booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility.
The two were charged with third-degree felony criminal mischief for intentionally destroying property; and class B misdemeanor theft.
Both made their initial court appearance Thursday afternoon in 5th District Court.
Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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