ST. GEORGE — A burglary in progress call landed two suspects in jail after officers arrived to find the pair loading property into a vehicle that was parked in the driveway of a residence in Hurricane the weekend of Dec. 10-11 – a home that was unoccupied due to the recent arrest of the homeowner, police say.
Officers responded to the area of West 300 South shortly after 10 p.m. in Hurricane after an individual called emergency dispatch reporting suspicious activity at one of the houses located along the street.
The reporting party said the owner of the home was in jail following a recent arrest, and there were several people going through the owner’s property without him there. The reporting party also said the suspects appeared to be loading tools, a tent and other items into a white Dodge Dart that was parked in the driveway.
Officers arrived to find two suspects, a woman who was later identified as 44-year-old Jennifer Staples, of LaVerkin, along with Eric Espinoza-Molina, a 29-year-old Hurricane man. According to charging documents filed with the court, Staples was on the porch with a flashlight when the first responding units arrived, while Molina was inside of the residence.
When officers spoke to Staples, she said that she and Molina were “only there to feed the animals while the owner was in jail,” and while speaking to the suspect, officers looked into the window of Staples’s vehicle and noticed several tools in the back of the car, items the suspect reportedly told police belonged to her.
When the woman was asked to show the items, officers noticed a bag of tools and several electric power tools with batteries and chargers, along with multiple toolboxes containing miscellaneous items. Several power cords used to power the equipment outside were also observed and a tent bag was recovered from inside the car – property consistent with the witness’s account of the items the suspects were reportedly seen taking from the property.
Officers also learned that some of the items found inside Staples’ car were from the inside of the home, while other items were stored outside on the property. When confronted, the woman told officers she had gone inside the home only to feed the dogs, but the report also states she denied taking anything from the property.
In the meantime, one of the officers noticed Molina through the living room window and went inside to talk to the man. Shortly thereafter, the suspects left the property while police continued processing the scene.
A short while later, officers found the Dodge Dart parked at a nearby residence not far from the victim’s home, which is where they spoke to the pair and took photos of the items still in the Dodge. Those photos were sent to the homeowner at the jail who confirmed that the items belonged to him and told police no one had permission to be inside the home or on the property.
With the items identified by the property owner, Staples and Molina were arrested and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility where the pair was booked into jail. Each was later charged with one second-degree felony count of burglary and one count of theft, a misdemeanor.
The items recovered were estimated to be valued at more than $500, police say.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.
Cody Blowers was raised in South San Francisco, California. A 2013 graduate of Colorado Technical University, Cody earned her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with a minor in paralegal studies. Through the course of her academic studies she discovered that writing is her true passion, and she is committed to providing credible, integrated news coverage. Cody joined St. George News in 2015, and when she’s not busy chasing the news, she can generally be found chasing her young granddaughter, Kali.
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