Capture Of Four Burglary Suspects A Joint Effort

Four suspects in the attempted burglary early Tuesday of the M&H Food Store, located on State Road 17, were behind bars after one was caught driving from the scene by a sheriff's deputy and three were captured by a Sebring police officer.

The store's video cameras caught images of three suspects attempting to cut the glass to get inside until the store's burglar alarm went off, Lethbridge said.

When Deputy Brian Livesay arrived on scene, he spotted a car pulling out from behind the Highlands Shrine Club, he said. Livesay pulled over the vehicle and arrested Robert E. Williams, 23, of Lake Wales, who was driving away in the getaway car.

A glass cutter, a bolt cutter and a pry bar were found inside the vehicle, Lethbridge said.

A K-9 unit tracked the other suspects from where the vehicle was first seen. Deputy Justin Clemmons and his K-9 partner Naiche followed them for about seven miles through orange groves -- all the way to an area near Highlands Regional Medical Center, Lethbridge said.

But, that is where a previously reported story changes.

Sebring police officer Bret Hinkle was the one who captured the three on the run.

He was searching an area at Arbuckle Creek Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Hinkle reported that he stopped a white Ford Escape as it approached his intersection. Inside was a female from Frostproof and a male from Babson Park.

The female told Hinkle they were supposed to meet their cousins at a gas station so they could go and hang out, but the gas station at Carter's Corner was closed. Hinkle thanked them for stopping and gave them directions to another gas station.

In the meantime, Hinkle learned that the fourth suspect who had been earlier detained was from southern Polk County, not far from Frostproof and Babson Park.

He shared what he had learned from the occupants of the white Ford Escape, with Livesay, Hinkle's report stated, and decided those occupants could somehow be involved with the case.

Hinkle canvassed the area on State Road 17 and was at North Ridgewood Drive when he saw the Ford Escape headed north on North Ridgewood Drive. He spotted the female driver, then turned onto S.R. 17 and followed the SUV.

"As I approached the vehicle I observed three black males in the rear seat hunched down appearing to try to stay out of my line of sight," Hinkle wrote.

The SUV now had five occupants.

He noticed the three male suspects were dirty with sand caked in their hair, sweating profusely as if they had been running, and there were clothes strewn throughout the vehicle that matched the description previously given to deputies.

Hinkle called for backup and detained Chad Jamall Wilson, 18, of Frostproof, Charles Andrew Jackson, 20, of Frostproof, and Manuel Valentine, 17, of Babson Park.

None of the suspects was armed. Identification cards for Jackson and Wilson were found inside the vehicle, linking them to the alleged getaway car.

All will be charged with attempted burglary, according to Sheriff's Lt. Tim Lethbridge.

Wilson and Jackson will be charged with possession of burglary tools.