MIDLAND CITY — Three Dothan men were arrested Friday morning and charged with breaking into several vehicles in a Midland City subdivision, according to police.
Demarius Dion Benton, 26, Deonte B. Jones, 20, and De'Andre Montrez Lewis III, 20, all of Dothan, have each been charged with four counts of breaking and entering into a motor vehicle. Benton and Jones were additionally charged with first-degree theft of property, and Lewis was also charged with second-degree theft of property and attempting to elude.
All of the suspects are being held in the Dale County Jail with no bond. According to Midland City Police Chief Jimmy Singleton, on Friday, June 2, at around 2:45 a.m., the department received a call from a resident in the Maplewood community who saw an individual in their yard attempting to break into a vehicle. People are also reading… Upon arrival, officers spotted three suspects who then eventually fled on foot. One of the suspects attempted to get away by running into a pond, but ended up not making it very far, as he apparently could not swim. "He started yelling at my officer 'help me, help me,'" Singleton said."My officer stayed on the bank and was telling him to come back to him. Then the individual went underwater and didn't come back up so my officer had to jump into the water, swim to him, and pull him out of the pond." Before he fled into the water, the suspect dropped a backpack which contained items from several vehicles in the area that were broken into. After the officer pulled him from the water, he confessed to law enforcement. "He basically admitted everything they did," Singleton said."He signed a waiver and confessed to everything that happened." After investigators reviewed video surveillance that showed all three individuals breaking into vehicles, the two other suspects were located at Midtown Apartments and taken into custody. A loaded firearm with a suppressor was also recovered in the apartment. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | Omny Studio | All Of Our Podcasts Singleton said the three individuals came from Midtown Apartments to deliberately target unlocked vehicles in the Maplewood community. "We have videos from numerous houses over there that show them walking up to a vehicle and checking on it," Singleton said."If it was locked, they would move on to the next one." The three suspects were cousins, and each has an extensive criminal record. Due to their records, Singleton is frustrated with the prison system and said the suspects should've still been locked up instead of out on the streets. "The prison system in Alabama is awful," Singleton said."We lock them up and they let them out. I hate to say it, but these are three thugs from Dothan, Alabama, that came to our town and teared up our citizens' stuff. With their criminal record, they need to be locked up and the key thrown away.""Drugs are up, burglaries are up," Singleton said."We're shorthanded like everybody and you can't get enough people to do this job anymore." Singleton believes the recent spike in youth crime can be attributed to the way their life is at home. "I think it's the upbringing, it's the home life," Singleton said."We run into a lot of young juveniles, and we find out that they come from a broken home. Their mom's in prison or their dad's in prison, while the other ones trying to work, and nobody is paying attention to the child." "School has only been out for a few days, and we've already had the elementary school and the concession stands at the high school broken into. Then when you go talk to the parents, you find out none of these kids really stand a chance and it's terrible." Most of the crimes in Midland City are committed by individuals who aren't from the area. Singleton assures that if anyone wants to come in and cause trouble, police officers are always out and will be ready to arrest you. "A lot of our criminals that we're arresting are coming from the big towns to the small towns," Singleton said."I guess they think since we're a small town, we don't have anyone out at night. Well I got news for them, we got folks out at night and I'm out all the time no matter if it's day or night."John M. O'Connor Follow John M. O'Connor Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today
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