One walked off from court-ordered rehab related to theft last month

BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

TOMAHAWK, Ky. — Two men with a history of stealing copper wire were arrested Thursday when police caught them with stolen wire in the back of a truck on Rockhouse Road in Tomahawk. One of the men apparently had walked off from a drug rehab center he was court-ordered to complete last month after he was caught stealing copper in Tomahawk. The other is facing felony charges for two incidents of copper theft in November 2022 and is scheduled to appear in court Thursday on those charges.

Chief Deputy Chris Kidd of the Martin County Sheriff’s Office went to 2980 Rockhouse Road to serve a warrant on 42-year-old Jason Mollett of Tomahawk for leaving the drug rehab center that he was ordered to Feb. 7.

When Kidd arrived at Mollett’s residence, he noticed Mollett’s truck was there.

“I watched the house for a few minutes and saw a male subject exit and walk by the truck, so I went ahead and pulled in with a warrant in hand,” Kidd said.

When Mollett noticed the officer, he hid under an outbuilding on the property.

Kidd was able to get Mollett out from under the outbuilding and take him into custody without incident.

A second male, identified as Taylor G. Howell, 24, of Lovely, was also at the residence.

“During the investigation, I noticed in plain sight there was a lot of aluminum-coated wiring and several bundles of copper wiring in the back of a truck there at the location,” said Kidd. “[Howell] indicated he and Mollett had gotten that from Martiki strip job the previous night and they were in the process of cleaning and stripping it.”

Kidd arrested the pair and charged them with receiving stolen property.

The new investigation is ongoing.

Mollett history

Mollett was arrested Feb. 2 along with 26-year-old Jeremy Tyler Jude of Tomahawk when Kidd caught Mollett processing copper wiring the two had cut and taken in the Tomahawk area.

During that investigation, police obtained invoices from Mountain Metals in Prestonsburg showing Mollett had received close to $6,000 over the previous few months for selling stolen copper.

Mollett and Jude were arrested on felony theft charges. The following week they were court-ordered to drug rehab.

Howell history

Howell was indicted in January on two counts of unlawful taking for alleged copper theft in November 2022.

Howell is accused of taking $3,490.26 in copper transmission line owned by AT&T and burning it Nov. 25. He was arrested when Deputy David Adams was patrolling on North Wolf Creek and saw smoke. Upon investigation, the deputy caught Howell at his residence on Maynard Flatt, standing beside a truck burning the plastic coating off phone line.

Eight days earlier, Adams was patrolling on Wolf and caught Howell and 21-year-old John R. Pack of Warfield cutting down phone line. Upon questioning, the two claimed they were trying to make some money to pay rent.

Adams reported the pair had a fiberglass pole commonly used by linemen, a spotlight and a battery-powered saw that they used to cut the line and strand.

Both Mollett and Howell are lodged at the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center.

Copper thieves have cut and stolen thousands of feet of phone lines in Martin County in recent months, interrupting service to thousands of customers for weeks at a time.

Sheriff John Kirk and Deputy Kidd ask residents to help end the problem by reporting suspected copper theft at 606-298-2828.