Two people have been arrested in connection with an incident involving a suspect fleeing in his vehicle as beef allegedly stolen from a barn freezer is being tossed out the window. The suspects were being chased by two individuals, including a district judge.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed Tuesday, an Izard County deputy sheriff dispatched to intercept a fleeing Jeep in Melbourne Friday evening was met by three vehicles at the intersection of State Highway 9 and Lunenburg Road.
The Jeep had reportedly just left a barn with the driver, later identified as 47-year-old Stephen Scott McCurley, fleeing with more than 70 pounds of meat allegedly stolen from a freezer.
When the three vehicles approached the intersection, one was alongside McCurley’s Jeep, with the second behind it.
When the deputy stopped the vehicles, McCurley exited his and asked the officer if he had done anything wrong.
The occupants of the other vehicles, identified as John David Miller and District Judge David Miller, approached McCurley and asked what he was doing in their barn. In response, McCurley said he was just getting the meat owed to him. He spontaneously uttered he had bought meat from a guy named Juan, and he did not deliver.
When the deputy moved McCurley back to his vehicle and looked in the rear hatch, he observed numerous packages of frozen meat. He also found a female in the rear passenger seat identified as 36-year-old Amberly Louis Goodwin.
Both McCurley and Goodwin were taken into custody. Their addresses were not provided in online court documents.
The deputy also noted the vehicle the suspects were in had its license plate covered with a red rag.
An inventory of the vehicle revealed 56 1-pound tubes of ground beef, three 1-pound squared packages of ground beef and 1 beef brisket weighing approximately 5 pounds. The victims valued the meat at $250.
During interviews, Goodwin allegedly said she did not remember a whole lot because she had been drinking. She agreed it was “a little odd” the two had allegedly been at the barn that late in the evening.
Goodwin acknowledged she had been tossing the meat from the vehicle’s window during the pursuit, saying she did so because she “had a bad feeling.”
McCurley allegedly told law enforcement he had purchased the meat from a man named Juan on Friday at a business parking lot and had met him at the barn previously when he had obtained meat from him.
When Juan did not meet him Friday evening, McCurley said the man had told him to “help himself to about $225 worth of beef.”
McCurley said he had covered the vehicle plates because they were fictitious.
McCurley and Goodwin have been charged with a felony count of breaking or entering, as well as misdemeanor counts of theft and tampering with physical evidence.
Their bonds were set at $5,000 each.
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