Photo: Jessie Leon Oxford
A Stone County man, 30-year-old Jessie Leon Oxford of Mountain View, has been arrested in connection with burglaries at a salon and a pizza restaurant.
According to the probable cause affidavits, a Mountain View Police officer was dispatched to a salon located along Main Street on Dec. 26. The salon owner reported she arrived earlier to find the back door unlocked and the business destroyed, with items out of the shelves and drawers on the floor. Initially it was thought nothing was missing, and it was assumed the burglar was looking for cash. However, later it was learned eight bottles of shampoo and conditioner were missing.
Later, the salon owner contacted law enforcement after hearing from a friend living next door to the business. The woman reported having seen a male walking from the back door of the salon on Christmas eve carrying a bag. The woman got into her car and followed the man, obtaining his description.
On Monday morning just after 7, a Mountain View officer responded to a report of an individual wrapped in a blanket walking behind a restaurant. The officer arrived to find a male, later identified as Oxford, walking away from the front of the restaurant.
Oxford told the officer he had $20 and wanted to buy a pizza. He said he did not have a place to live and was staying with friends at a nearby trailer park, after being kicked out of another house by the residents.
Within an hour, the officer was dispatched back to the restaurant, with the caller saying someone had broken into the business.
Officers traveled to the trailer park where Oxford had said he was living and were able to locate him. Again he said he had been at the restaurant only to purchase a pizza, despite the business not opening until 3 p.m.
While searching Oxford, officers located a large amount of cash in small bills he claimed he had received from a friend he knew only as “Travis.” He would later claim in an interview at the police department the money found on him was payment for work on a landscaping job.
Oxford was arrested and charged with felony counts of commercial burglary and breaking or entering, along with a misdemeanor count of theft of property.
After learning of Oxford’s arrest, the officer investigating the salon break-in traveled to the trailer park where the suspect had been living. A resident there who is an active probationer with a search waiver on file told the officer Oxford did not have any property at the home and did not live there.
A search of the residence led to the discovery of four bottles of shampoo of the same brand reported stolen from the salon. A second resident at the home said he found the shampoo in the living room. When told it was taken in a commercial burglary, he said he found the bottles in a bucket outside the home.
Oxford faces felony counts of commercial burglary and theft of property in connection with allegedly entering the salon.
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