Three charged in burglaries

Published 12:00 am Sunday, July 26, 2015

Three people face multiple charges involving three home burglaries in the county after their arrest Friday by Warren County sheriff’s deputies, Sheriff Martin Pace said.

He said Ebony Lyn Ragan, 26, 812 Polk Street; Bennett Armstead, 33, 2418 Halls Ferry Road; and Donnell Otis Judge, 36, 71 Mingos Road, were arrested about 10 a.m. Friday in a hotel room at the Battleground Campground, 4407 I-20 Frontage Road. All were being held in the Warren County Jail without bond pending an initial appearance Monday in justice court.

Ragan is charged with receiving stolen property. Armstead is charged with burglary and grand larceny involving one of the break-ins, and accessory before the fact to another burglary.

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Pace said Armstead also has a hold placed on him by the Mississippi Department of Corrections because he was on probation for burglaries he committed in Warren County in 2014.

Judge is charged with burglary and grand larceny in two of the burglaries and receiving stolen property.

Pace said the investigation is continuing and other charges may be filed.

He said two of the burglaries occurred Wednesday, when a television and a laptop were reported taken from a home in the 400 block of Ridgewood Drive in Oak Park Subdivision, and a window unit air conditioner and jewelry were reported stolen from a home in the 1500 block of Oak Ridge Road several hours later.

The third occurred Friday, when a .45-caliber Glock handgun, two laptops, a 55-inch flat screen TV, an iPad, and iPhone and a set of men’s and women’s wedding bands were reported stolen from a home in the 100 block of Ridgelawn Drive off Tucker Road while two teenagers were asleep in the house.

The sheriff said the arrests were the result of information from citizens who gave descriptions of the car believed used in the burglaries.

He said deputies were able to identify the car, described as a black KIA sedan with a broken windshield and dents in the body. Friday, he said, investigators found the car and served search warrants on it and the hotel room, arrested the trio, and recovered items taken in the three burglaries.

“This is such a good example of the public working with law enforcement,” he said. “This all got started by two very alert citizens working with the sheriff’s office.”