INEZ — Martin County Sheriff John Kirk’s office reported the following arrests:
Justin Mollette, 33, of Inez, was arrested Monday on a warrant charging him with theft by unlawful taking over $10,000. Chief Deputy Chris Kidd reported Mollette had been implicated during an investigation into copper thefts in Maritn County. Kidd obtained the warrant based on evidence he gathered. According to the arrest report, Mollette admitted to cutting copper at four locations in the county and taking it from another, then selling it at Mountain Metal in Prestonsburg.
Derrick Brewer, 38, of Warfield, was arrested Saturday for violation of a Kentucky EPO/DVO and fugitive from another state warrant. Constable Mitchell Bowen made the arrest.
Ray Collins, 66, of Inez, was arrested Friday on a warrant charging him with theft by unlawful taking over $10,000 in connection to AT&T phone line theft in Martin County. Kidd reported Collins was implicated via photographs, witness statements, and receipts provided by local scrap yards. While serving Collins at a camper on Davis Branch, Kidd saw 150 of phone wire through an open window in a building.
Robin Grace-Slone, 52, of Debord, was arrested Thursday in Debord on a bench warrant for court. Kidd made the arrest.
Jeffrey Wayne Pinson, 29, of Inez, was arrested Thursday in Inez for theft by unlawful taking or disposition all others $1,000-$10,000. Deputy Chris Kidd reported that during a police interview, Pinson admitted that he and another male subject cut and took copper phone lines on Coldwater Road. Police located three burn piles of phone lines near Pinson’s property, and Pinson admitted that is where he processed the phone lines for copper. He also admitted to taking the copper to Mountain Metal in Prestonsburg for cash.
Lundy Brewer, 48, of Kermit, W.Va., was arrested Thursday in Warfield on a bench warrant for court. Kidd made the arrest.
Brandon Kirk, 33, of Lenore, W.Va., was arrested Thursday in Warfield for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of controlled substance. Kidd made the arrest.
Bart Anthony Horne, 27, of Pilgrim, was arrested Dec. 21 at a residence on South Wolf Creek Road in Pilgrim for fourth-degree assault (domestic violence) causing minor injury, first-degree strangulation, unlawful imprisonment and menacing. Deputy David Adams responded to a complaint from dispatch of a possible domestic in progress. The deputy reports that when he arrived, Sierra Dingess came out of the house running, and he could hear a male inside screaming and cursing.
According to the police report, Dingess advised that her boyfriend, Bart Anthony Horne, had been hitting, strangling and holding her in the house against her will. She told police that Horne was playing the Xbox and when she told him she was going to bed, he began to curse and call her names. Dingess said she ignored Horne, walked back into her bedroom and was setting her alarm for work when Horne followed her into the room, grabbed her, threw her onto the bed, breaking the bed, and began strangling her. Dingess said she started seeing spots and was getting light-headed, so she sunk her fingernails into Horne’s back to get away but was unsuccessful.
According to the police report, Dingess said that Horne heard her brother Brycse Dingess go out the door and got off her to look out the bedroom door. He demanded Dingess go next door to Bradford Preece’s house and tell her brother to come home and fix it so he wouldn’t go to jail.
Horne allegedly walked into the bathroom and punched a hole in the wall.
When Dingess got up from the bed, Horne went to grab her again, and she tried to push him off and scratched his chest. The victim said Horne got mad, punched her in the face, threw her around their bedroom, pinned her on the floor, and began strangling her again.
Dingess told police that she believed Horne broke her hand when she tried to block him from hitting her.
The police report states Dingess got up from the floor and tried to go outside, but Horne would not let her as “he didn’t want the neighbors knowing he had been hitting her.” Dingess told officers that Horne would push her down on the couch whenever she tried to leave.
Dingess’s brother told police that he woke up to the sound of water running and loud banging coming from his sister’s room and heard his sister saying two or three times, “Get off of me.” Before running to the neighbor’s house, the last thing Brycse Dingess heard was his sister gasping for air.
The police report notes, “Sierra Dingess had red places of a hand print on her neck, her left eye was puffy and starting to swell. On the right side of Miss Dingess’s head was a knot with a cut, left hand was red and appeared to be bruising above her pinky and ring finger knuckles. Miss Dingess was missing her right earring.”
Deputy Adams located the earring on the broken bed and found a hole in the bathroom wall that corroborated Sierra Dingess’s and her brother’s statements.
Adams reports that after placing Horne under arrest, Horne began blaming Sierra Dingess, cussing her and trying to intimidate her by saying she would regret this.
Brenten Johnson, 30, of Inez, was arrested Dec. 21 in Inez for falsely reporting an incident to law enforcement. Deputy Adams responded to a complaint of shots fired at Irene Lane in Inez at about 4:30 a.m. When the officer arrived, Johnson advised that his cousin Paul Johnson shot at him when he asked him to leave his house. Brenten Johnson said Paul Johnson was not welcome at his residence, and when he told him to leave, Paul Johnson pulled a .22 caliber pistol and shot at him, hitting his truck windshield. He said Paul Johnson shot from his Toyota Corolla.
Adams spoke to Paul Johnson, who stated Brenton Johnson was on his property at Fitch Branch and that he asked him to leave because he was arguing with his girlfriend. According to Paul Johnson, an argument broke out between the two men, and Brenton Johnson started kicking his door and pushing him into a refrigerator. Paul Johnson said he got his gun and fired a couple of shots “just trying to scare him off.” The deputy says Paul Johnson produced video surveillance to back up his statement, showing Brenten Johnson had lied.
Brian Lowe, 52, of Pilgrim, was arrested Dec. 21 in Inez on a bench warrant for court. Sheriff Kirk made the arrest.