A Mountain Home man already facing a slew of charges for allegedly stealing catalytic converters now faces additional charges in Gassville.
Thirty-eight-year-old James Patrick Lally was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with theft of property, breaking or entering a vehicle, and criminal trespassing. The first two charges are Class D felonies while the final charge is a Class A misdemeanor.
Lally currently faces 33 felony theft of property charges and 33 counts of criminal mischief in the first degree for allegedly stealing 32 catalytic convertors off of vehicles over the last five weeks.
According to the probable cause affidavit in Lally’s latest charges, on the night of April 14 or the early morning of April 15, someone entered the property at Reeve’s Propane, got into a work truck, and stole tools and copper tubing from the vehicle.
After Lally was arrested in connection with the catalytic converter thefts, Gassville police officers visited the residence he had been staying at and was invited by the homeowner to look through the pile of property Lally had left behind. While searching the through the items, Gassville police chief Tim Mayfield said officers located the tools reported missing from Reeve’s Propane as well as two possibly stolen catalytic converters. The tools were taken to Reeve’s Propane, where they were identified and returned.
The copper tubing reported missing has not been recovered. It is 350 feet of 5/8th-inch tubing and 200 feet of half-inch tubing. Mayfield said he believes the tubing would have been scrapped by an associate of Lally’s and that the Gassville Police Department will continue its investigation.
Lally was arrested April 15 for allegedly stealing the 33 catalytic converters, and left the Baxter County Detention Center on Tuesday after posting a $26,500 bond. He was returned to the jail Wednesday morning following his arrest on the Gassville charges. Online jail records indicate Lally remains in jail with no bond having been set.
Lally has six prior convictions of property crimes including in 2017 when he admitted he had taken a number of water meters, cut them up and sold the parts to a recycling business.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI