ST. GEORGE — A welfare check call to police led to the arrest of three suspects when officers found an older woman who did not know where she was or how she had gotten there – and then found an alleged scheme involving a U-Haul rental, theft and forgery.
The arrest stems from a call into emergency dispatch on Saturday morning requesting a welfare check on an older woman who was inside McDonald’s on Bluff Street in St. George. She appeared confused and was reportedly “wandering around and didn’t know where she lived,” shortly after 8 :15 a.m., according to the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrests.
Officers arrived to find the woman who appeared confused, and she was able to provide her name and other personal information, but she “had no idea how she got to the McDonalds,” the officer noted in the report.
Officers canvased the parking lot in the hopes of locating a vehicle or possibly the woman’s family and then found paperwork from a hospital in Las Vegas with the name “Joseph Ledonne” on it, along with a phone number. Officers dialed the number several times but received no answer, which is when the woman led police outside to a silver passenger car parked next to a U-Haul truck in the restaurant parking lot, telling officers that her car was missing.
The officer made another attempt to reach Ledonne by dialing the number listed on the hospital paperwork, but one of the other officers heard a phone ringing inside of the U-Haul. When the officer hung up, the ringing stopped as well.
Officers approached and could see a man sleeping in the cab of the moving truck who was later identified as 23-year-old Angel Mauro Vermont Lowe, of Las Vegas, Nevada. Officers also could see two people sleeping in the back of the truck through a partially open door. The man was identified as 36-year-old Joseph Anthony LaDonne, of Wichita, Kansas, and the woman was identified as 28-year-old Chantele Ann Martinez, of Las Vegas.
When Martinez looked out the back of the moving truck and spotted the woman, she beckoned her by name, telling officers the older woman was her grandmother who had dementia, and went on to tell police she had legal guardianship of the woman, the officer noted in the report.
Martinez explained that prior to the police call, all three suspects and her grandmother had been sleeping in the moving truck parked at the fast-food restaurant, had been there for the last five hours and was unaware the relative had wandered off.
In the meantime, officers arranged for the grandmother to be transported to St. George Regional Hospital for further treatment for dementia.
During a search of the U-Haul, officers recovered three identification and credit cards that did not belong to any of the suspects, and when asked, the report states Martinez provided several conflicting accounts as to why the trio had them, including one account that she “found” the cards in her wallet but had no idea how they got there. She also told officers they found the cards in a bag that was discarded on the side of the road, then a car, and then she said she got them from a friend.
Martinez said “she used her grandmother to rent the U-haul – knowing she had dementia,” the officer noted, and then used another friend to go online to complete the reservation. Martinez also told officers she reportedly stole the shoes she was wearing from the Walmart in St. George, as well as the air mattress and pump that were also recovered during the search. Officers also recovered two cats that were found inside the moving trailer.
During a search of the silver passenger car parked in the next stall, officers recovered a roll of Walmart receipt paper and a printer in the back seat, along with drug paraphernalia that was in plain view of authorities.
When Lowe was searched, inside one of the suspect’s pockets officers found several Walmart receipts imprinted with the serial numbers that officers later learned matched the two large UHD smart TV’s recovered from the back of the U-Haul. When Lowe was asked about the TVs, he asked for an attorney and all questioning ceased.
While being questioned by police, Martinez claimed no knowledge the TVs were stolen, despite the fact that Martinez “had been with everyone in Las Vegas where they were stolen and had been sleeping in the U-haul trailer with the stolen TV’s,” the report states.
And while speaking to officers, LeDonne reportedly pulled multiple Walmart receipts from his pockets and handed them to police. The officer noted that each of the receipts had the exact same ID number at the top, but each receipt listed a different set of items that were purportedly purchased.
The report also states LeDonne told officers “he prints off fake receipts using the roll of receipt paper” and using a modified template and then adds the whatever merchandise he chooses to the receipt. He also told officers he used the receipts to steal items from several Walmart stores located in both Utah and Nevada, including the inflatable mattress, air pump, a blanket and shoes. LeDonne also admitted to stealing two large TV’s, valued at more than $1,645, from a Walmart in Las Vegas, the report states, and he “had the fake receipts to show [for] it.”
All of the items mentioned by the suspects were recovered during a search of the moving truck, and authorities also recovered pipes, bongs, tinfoil and other paraphernalia-related items during a search of both vehicles, as well as two cats that were found in the back of the moving trailer.
When U-Haul was contacted by authorities, the agent confirmed the truck was rented under the grandmother’s name and told officers the truck was overdue but not reported as stolen.
During a records check, officers learned that Lowe was listed as a missing person after the suspect’s father filed a missing person report with authorities in Nevada, and a warrant check revealed Lowe had three outstanding warrants issued out of Utah, while Martinez and LeDonne cleared the warrant check.
All three suspects were arrested and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility, where each faces multiple charges.
Martinez faces one third-degree felony count of possession of another’s identifying documents, as well as six misdemeanor charges, including one count each of abuse or neglect of a vulnerable adult by isolation, criminal conspiracy, theft by receiving stolen property and two counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of possession of paraphernalia.
Lowe faces one count of third-degree felony forgery, along with one count of criminal conspiracy, two counts of possession of a controlled substance and paraphernalia, each a misdemeanor.
LeDonne faces third-degree felony forgery, along with one count each of retail shoplifting, criminal conspiracy, theft by receiving stolen property and two counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of possession of paraphernalia.
The criminal conspiracy charge was applied since all three suspects worked in concert during the alleged commission of the fraud and thefts. Officers also requested that Martinez and Lowe be held without bail, and that Martinez not be allowed to be around her grandmother.
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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