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Last updated on Saturday, July 20, 2013
(CLAY CITY) - Two men were arrested early last weekend following an alleged theft attempt.
According to Clay City Town Marshal Terry Skaggs, 36-year-old Jeremy Wayne Reed of Clay City and 23-year-old Darrell May of Linton were arrested and preliminarily charged with trespass and theft. In addition, May was preliminarily charged with burglary.
Skaggs says the Clay City Marshal's Department had received reports of alleged thefts at a lot owned by Bob Burkle Chevrolet.
Skaggs told The Brazil Times the thefts were taking place in a lot the business uses to hold scrap materials. The lot is located off Washington Street in Clay City.
Skaggs said residents living in the area had saw a black Ford F-150 in the area recently and were asked to keep an eye on the lot.
Last Friday night, residents called dispatch regarding a possible break-in at the facility, seeing the same black truck and two men near the lot.
Upon arrival, Skaggs and Clay City Deputy Town Marshal Terry Silvers blocked the entrance of the lot as a man was allegedly leaving the lot carrying a full-size car door to the truck.
Both men were arrested and taken to the Clay County Justice Center. Both are being held on a $10,000 bonds with no 10 percent allowed.
Assisting at the scene were the Clay County Sheriff's Department and the Indiana State Police.
The Greene County Daily World reports, there's more to the story behind last week's high-speed chase involving suspect Travis Flowers, a 21-year-old man who led numerous officers from Clay County into Greene County in a vehicle that had been reported as stolen.
The chase ended on Lone Tree Road around 8:30 on Thursday evening, July 11, near County Road 800 North where Linton Police Officer Paul Clark had stop sticks deployed. In an attempt to avoid the stop sticks, he crashed into a ditch and was taken into custody.
Flowers, who listed addresses in both Hymera and Coalmont on his jail booking form, has a criminal history.
In February of 2010, Flowers was convicted in Sullivan Superior Courtof robbery. As a result, Flowers is considered a serious violent felon and he is not allowed to possess a firearm.
On the day of the chase and crash, Jasonville Police Officer Ryan Van Horn had been notified the Sullivan County Sheriff's Department was reporting that Flowers was suspected of burglarizing his mother's residence in Hymera taking multiple firearms, and that he was suspected of stealing a 1994 blue Pontiac Grand Am.
But before all this took place, Greene County Sheriff's Deputy Dustin Cain had an encounter with Flowers on the Fourth of July.
Deputy Cain was dispatched to CR 1000 West just south of CR 300 North about a vehicle in a ditch.
When he arrived, he found a red Jeep Cherokee nose down in a ditch and a man, identified as Flowers, standing nearby holding a large wrench and a jack.
The deputy reported Flowers was stumbling around and was unable to maintain his balance but did not smell of alcohol. Cain said the man's speech was slurred and he kept having to pull him out of traffic to keep him from being struck by vehicles. Flowers told the deputy he was going to WalMart to buy baby clothes.
Flowers reportedly failed standard field sobriety tests then consented to submit to a blood draw. The deputy asked him to sit on the hood of his vehicle while the officer stepped back to his patrol car, but the officer looked back up, and Flowers had laid down.
Deputy Cain ran back to Flowers and tried to wake him up, but he would not respond. An ambulance was called and Flowers was transported to Greene County General Hospital. Flowers was conscious upon arrival but then became unresponsive again. No other details about his medical treatment were released.
The Jeep was towed. Then when Deputy Jeff Payton did the required inventory of the vehicle, he reported finding a lot of clothing items with Walmart store tags still intact, but no shopping bags. They had been randomly tossed in the vehicle.
Deputies Payton and Cain gathered the items, including men's and children's clothing, jewelry and baby items, and went to Walmart where they spoke to a manager. They also reviewed video surveillance footage which they said showed Flowers pushing two carts of clearance items out of the store without paying for them around 7 a.m. that morning.
More surveillance footage showed Flowers throwing the items into the back of the red Jeep.
The total value of the items taken was $1,731.39.
A criminal case was filed against Flowers in Greene Circuit Court on July 11 - same day as the evening chase, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
With the warrant from Greene, and the report about a burglary and stolen firearms coming out of Sullivan County, JPD Officer Van Horn made contact with Tia Hibbard.
In the probable cause affidavit in the chase case, Van Horn said Hibbard had children in common with Flowers and she advised Flowers had been acting very strange, she believed he was dangerous, and she believed if he was confronted by law enforcement, he would use the weapons.
Van Horn caught up with Flowers driving the blue Pontiac Grand Am near Coalmont, attempted to perform a traffic stop but instead Flowers accelerated away and the chase was on.
On Monday afternoon, July 15, Flowers appeared in Greene Circuit Court for initial hearings in both Greene County cases.
In the Fourth of July clothing case, Flowers was charged with theft -- a class D felony with bond set at $4,000.
In the chase case, Flowers was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon -- a class B felony, resisting law enforcement with a vehicle -- a class D felony, and receiving stolen auto parts -- a class D felony, with bond set at $23,000.
He will be facing other criminal charges in Sullivan County.
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