ST. GEORGE — A Draper City man with a long history of thefts in northern Utah now faces second-degree felony theft in Washington County after he was arrested by Sheriff’s Office deputies investigating a report of a stolen vehicle out of Leeds.
Steffan Nunley, 28, of Draper, was arrested Dec. 4 following a disorderly call at a residence on East Vista Avenue in Leeds involving Nunley. He was charged with one second-degree felony count of receiving-transferring a stolen vehicle, as well as three misdemeanor theft charges.
According to the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest, the call set in motion an investigation into the theft of a Jeep from the Cottonwood Heights area in October – a Jeep that had been discovered by deputies abandoned in Leeds. Initial information led detectives to believe the theft may have been part of an insurance scam.
Through the course of the investigation, officers received information indicating that Nunley had allegedly stolen the Jeep and removed the tires, which he planned at some point to put on his own vehicle, before taking the Jeep to a remote area in Leeds and abandoning it. The suspect also left the tires there, authorities allege, with the intent of retrieving them.
Unbeknownst to the suspect, the Jeep had been spotted days earlier by a deputy after a broadcast went out advising officers to be on the lookout for the stolen red Jeep. A deputy in the area spotted the vehicle surrounded by sage brush and rocks near Babylon Road. The hood was up and the back rear door was open and missing the handle to roll up the window, the statement said, with the officer also noting the removed tires and rotors.
The inside of the vehicle appeared to be cleared of all belongings, papers and other items, leaving “not even trash behind,” and the plates on the vehicle turned out to be stolen out of Washington City.
Detectives processed the scene for evidence but were unable to find any latent fingerprints, only evidence of the vehicle being wiped down.
With the information authorities received following the disorderly call, they were led to believe there was a “high probability that Steffan Nunley was in physical control of the vehicle (Jeep) and had knowledge it was stolen,” the officer noted in the report.
On Friday, deputies responded to Nunley’s residence in Leeds with a search warrant for the white Toyota Tundra he was using, and inside they found items allegedly linking Nunley to the crime, including store receipts showing the suspect was in the area at the time it was stolen, as well as for cleaning supplies that deputies believe were used to clean the Jeep and remove any evidence that could trace the vehicle back to him.
Nunley was arrested and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility, and following an initial appearance Wednesday in 5th District Court, he remains in custody on $20,010 bail. He is scheduled to appear for a review hearing Dec. 23.
Besides the current charges, a recent case is still pending in Draper City involving charges that were filed in January related to a business burglary reported in the Salt Lake City area in August 2019.
In that case, two suspects entered the automotive business by removing one of the door panels. Surveillance footage recovered by police showed both suspects enter riding a “pay-to-ride scooter” after one of the men kicked through the center bay door.
Once inside, the suspects took a toolbox, a bag of car wash tokens valued at $400, multiple scanners, tools and drills before the pair fled the shop.
Officers identified one of the suspects as Nunley and noted in the charging documents that the agency has had numerous run-ins with the suspect, saying he is a “known burglar and thief.”
The report also stated that Nunley was a suspect in the theft of a Jeep Grand Cherokee during that same time period, and just hours after the business burglary the suspect was seen pulling into work driving the Grand Cherokee by a witness who spoke with police. A registration check later revealed that Nunley had the Jeep registered in his name within hours of the burglary at the mechanics shop.
Officers obtained a warrant for a GPS tracking device to be place on the Grand Cherokee, which paid off a few days later when they were able to track the suspect as he returned to the same mechanic’s shop after it had closed for the night and arrested the suspect.
During a search of the Grand Cherokee, officers recovered a scooter that matched the one shown in the surveillance footage from the burglary days before. That case is still pending with the courts.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. 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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