Teenagers may face additional charges

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, January 11, 2000

Four teenagers who allegedly burglarized two vehicles in downtown Natchez this weekend may face additional charges.

Dennis Levite, 18, 57 Farm Road, Christopher Case, 17, 15 Pheasant Road, Roxie, Danny Ellington, 17, 98 Old Highway 84 were being held on $10,000 bonds Monday.

They are charged with breaking into vehicles parked at 306 Washington Road and 57 Silver St. The fourth teenager, a 16-year-old juvenile, was being held without bond at the Adams County Sheriff’s Office Monday afternoon.

Email newsletter signup

Police believe the burglaries took place between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Five other vehicles, on Jefferson Davis Boulevard and at Natchez Under-the-Hill, were also burglarized that same night.

&uot;We are investigating them in connection with these burglaries,&uot;&160;said Natchez Police Chief Willie Huff.

Police first suspected the teenagers after they were contacted by a Wal-Mart security guard around 4 a.m. Sunday. The guard told police he had seen the suspects enter a vehicle, at the Seargent S. Prentiss Drive store, that was not their own. Nothing was stolen from it, Huff said.

With the help of a vehicle description from the guard, police were able to stop the suspects at the Liberty Road and Seargent S. Prentiss Drive intersection.

According to the guard, the suspects had been walking around the Wal-Mart parking lot looking at vehicles, Huff said. Police believe the suspects were looking for unlocked cars to burglarize.

The cars burglarized over the weekend were unlocked, Huff said.

Because Case and Ellington are 17-years-old and charged with a felony they will be tried as adults Huff said.

The name of the 16-year-old could not be released because he is being tried as a juvenile.

John Ballard, of the Wharf Master’s House Restaurant, owns one of the vehicles burglarized over the weekend.

He retrieved all of his stolen items, including a hat and his wallet, from the Natchez Police Department Monday morning. His credit cards and cash were still in the wallet.

&uot;They didn’t have the chance to spend it,&uot;&160;he said.

Ballard was surprised at the pile of stolen items police collected.

&uot;It must have been a trunk-load. I saw three or four cell phones at least,&uot; he said.