On Dec. 19, Robert Donnell Jones, 25, was bound over to Wayne County Circuit Court for a Jan. 2 arraignment on the information in a charge of embezzlement of between $1,000 and $20,000 by an agent or trustee at the Van Buren Township Walmart.
About an hour after 34th District Court Judge Brian A. Oakley bound Jones over, Jones’ court-appointed attorney Ronald Weitzman came back into the courtroom to ask if his client could go on the cruise he had planned. Judge Oakley approved Jones’ Dec. 28 to Jan. 6 cruise, which meant the circuit court arraignment date needed to be adjusted, which only circuit court can do.
Attorney Weitzman also had asked for a transcript of the preliminary exam held that day, in which his client testified.
VBT Police Officers Michael Long and Donovan McCarthy rolled a large screen into the courtroom, but the court’s IT person was unable to pull up a surveillance video that was to be a part of the evidence presented.
The only witness put forward by the Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor was Kristin Therrian, Walmart asset protection assistant store manager at the Belleville Walmart, who discovered the iPhone X cell phone missing on June 27.
She said the phone was worth $1,049. She said the store has a serialized inventory of phones delivered through Fed Ex and she came up with a missing phone. She testified she looked through the receipts of sales and a serial number came up with no evidence of sale or order through contract.
“I reviewed a video to see where the phone had gone,” Therrian said, noting she reviewed surveillance tape from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. that day and at 3:30 p.m. she found the first encounter.
She said a female customer came to the desk and talked over a contract with a clerk for quite some time. Then, she said, Jones contacted an employee with a key to the lockup and retrieved two iPhone Xs.
Therrian testified Jones made his way to the counter and talked to the female customer and they looked like they were going over the contract.
Then, the female customer went away and paid for a greeting card and got $100 cash back in the transaction. She returned and she and Jones went out to the bench outside the store and were having a conversation. She said she believed the phone was still on the counter.
She said they came back in and went back to the wireless counter. Eventually, they do go to the register and he scans the phone, but nothing is registered as scanned.
Therrian said it came up as “processing error” three or four times. The contract he scanned was incomplete. She said policy calls for the phone to be put back in lockup when denied by the contract carrier. She said the second phone was put back, but not the missing phone.
Therrian testified the female had cash in hand and then she put the money into her purse. Jones put the phone into a Walmart shopping bag and the woman left with it.
She said Jones went back to the wireless counter and she was unable to locate the phone for the rest of the day.
After cross-examination, defense attorney Weitzman asked Judge Oakley to let his client testify. He said the testimony so far hasn’t told the entire story of what happened and his client’s testimony would show that “no crime was committed and nothing was stolen.”
The prosecutor said that would be a valid defense at trial stage, but this was a preliminary exam.
Judge Oakley agreed this was a question of fact for a tryer of fact. The judge said he is going to find probable cause to bind Jones over, but if he wants to testify, he will allow it. He warned Jones that anything he said on the stand could be used against him in a court of law.
Jones said he no longer works at the Walmart store. He testified his job had been to help wireless customers and about 3:30 p.m. on June 27 a woman he didn’t know said she wanted two phones activated. Jones said he sought out management personnel to unlock the place the phones are kept.
He said he came back with two phones and got the name and identification and submitted it to the computer program. It would have gone to Sprint or Verizon, he said.
He said you have to call to get a yes or no answer and after that physical paperwork is signed by the customer. There are two copies, one for the customer. She did not have a phone, he said, to take part in the process so they stepped outside because she couldn’t activate the phone inside.
He said they came back into the store with the white-face phone and taxes are paid by scanning the barcode.
He said the first phone scanned but there was a recurring problem with the second phone. The barcode to pay for taxes wasn’t working right. He testified that had been a recurring problem and he had alerted Walmart.
He said he completed the process and put the phone in the bag.
“I did not steal or get my commission for the second phone,” Jones testified.
On cross-examination, he told the prosecutor that they could not get connected inside and that’s why the left the store. He said they only pay taxes at Walmart and that was for the first phone, not the second. He said the order was completed.
He said this has been a prior issue for Walmart and he had received an email from Walmart on the problem.
Jones said the phone was processed, but the barcode to be scanned for taxes showed and error and he could not charge for taxes.
“I did nothing improper,” Jones testified and Judge Oakley bound him over to circuit court.
If he is found guilty he faces a sentence of 5 years in prison and/or a fine up to $10,000.
Chelsea Rae Dennis
A preliminary exam on two charges of possession of narcotics for Chelsea Rae Dennis, 27, was adjourned until Jan. 9 in order to get a person from the laboratory where the evidence test was conducted. The witness possibly could appear by video.
Dennis was ready to start her preliminary exam before Judge David Parrott on Dec. 12 when her retained attorney Wade Fink asked for a dismissal of the two possession of narcotics or cocaine less than 25 grams charges against her in the City of Belleville on April 15.
Fink said he asked the Chief of Police for the evidence and got her car out of forfeiture. He said his client was ripped out of her vehicle and injured. He said he got no call backs and on Nov. 21 there was still no discovery. He said two days previously he got a call that the lab report was at the Dearborn Heights PD.
He said there is an in-car video of what happened at her arrest and he wants it as evidence.
“I have been asking for the evidence, and I just got the police report,” Fink said. “It happened eight months ago. I’m asking for dismissal because of a discovery violation.”
Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Meghan Mathews said she was a substitute in this matter. She said records show the defendant adjourned the case Nov. 7 and then again adjourned it on Nov. 21. She referred to a prior conviction.
“The defense counsel has all the written reports and the prosecutor’s office doesn’t have videos,” Matthews said. “He has to submit his request to the Belleville Police Department.” She said he has the drug tests and lab results. She said if the case is dismissed, the prosecutor’s office will immediately refile the charges.
“I don’t have the best evidence,” Fink said. “I want the video!”
Judge Parrott adjourned the preliminary exam for one week, until Dec. 19, when it was before Judge Oakley. Judge Parrott told Fink that if he gets a stipulated discovery order, “I’ll sign it and you can take it over to Belleville.
Fink complained again about not having the video and Matthews said, “We don’t have it in our discovery. We give you what we have.”
When Fink continued his complaints to the prosecutor, Judge Parrott said, “Can you take it outside?” And they did, arguing all the way out the door.
Gregory James Decz
The preliminary exam for Gregory James Decz, 47, was adjourned from the Dec. 12 court session for one week, until Dec. 19, so an unexplained Nov. 26 letter could be obtained. Decz is facing charges of two counts of operating while intoxicated-third, driving with open intoxicants, and driving while license suspended in VBT on Oct. 12. He is free after posting bond of $5,000/10%.
But, on Dec. 19, Decz waived his preliminary exam and he was bound over to circuit court on Jan. 2 for an arraignment on the information.
Herbert Allan Smith
On Dec. 19, Herbert Allan Smith, 35, waived his preliminary exam on charges of unlawful imprisonment, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, and interfering with a police investigation on Nov. 22 in Sumpter Township. He is scheduled to be at circuit court on Jan. 2 for an arraignment on the information.
Tyler Alan Ladouceur
Tyler Alan Ladouceur, 22, waived his preliminary exam on a charge of delivery/manufacture of less than 50 grams of narcotics or cocaine on Dec. 7 in the City of Belleville. He is free on $10,000 personal recognizance bond and Magistrate Lisa Martin directed him to be at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice on Jan. 2 for his arraignment on the information.