Two Mountain Home residents were arrested Thursday on outstanding warrants for burglary, theft and other charges. According to Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery 35-year-old Michael Paul Howard and 32-year-old Keturah D. Sanders are in custody in the Baxter County Detention Center, and Howard is also accused of failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements.
Sheriff Montgomery says his office originally received a report August 25th from a local citizen saying his storage unit in Gamaliel was broken into, and various articles of property were missing. Another victim reported September 20th her RV fifth-wheel trailer was broken into, and numerous items were stolen. Two days earlier, a sheriff's deputy was flagged down by a citizen reporting a man and woman had been seen near the RV trailer in question. The pair were followed to the A-1 Storage Facility on Buzzard Roost Road, and the deputy identified them as Howard and Sanders when he made contact with them. They were standing in front of an open storage unit containing several personal property items including musical instruments, clothing, flat screen television sets and other items. The deputy took photographs of the contents in the storage unit and submitted them to the criminal investigation division, but he took no further since he didn't have a warrant, and the report of the burglarized fifth-wheel trailer had not yet been filed.
The owner of the RV trailer returned to the sheriff's office October 7th, and she positively identified the items in the photographs as her belongings. A search warrant was obtained by investigators three days later to gain access to the unit, and the items recovered were collectively valued at nearly $4,750. Other items in the photographs were no longer in the storage unit including a guitar with a case and two large flat screen TVs. Investigators obtained arrest warrants for Howard and Sanders October 13th, and taken into custody one week later.
Howard faces felony counts of residential burglary, theft of property, revocation bench warrant and three counts of failure to appear in court. He also faces a felony count of failure to comply with sex offender registration after being sentenced to three years probation on the same charge in Baxter County Circuit Court in late August. Howard is being held without bond in the detention center.
Sanders is charged with felony counts of residential burglary and theft of property and a misdemeanor county of failure to appear in court. She is being held in lieu of $26,000 bond.
Howard and Sanders are scheduled to appear Thursday in Baxter County Circuit Court.
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