MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a New Orleans man to two years in prison for his role in an interstate theft that struck two Mobile businesses in 2018.
Jerrell Maxon pleaded guilty to interstate transportation in stolen vehicles in March. In addition to the prison sentence, senior US District Judge William Steele, along with co-defendant Tim Jackson, ordered him to pay $147,795 in reparations. He is due to be sentenced on October 20.
Court records show that police used cell phone data, Maxon’s recorded phone calls from prison, web browsing history and even a “caught in the act” section of FOX10 News to build their case against him.
Several people wearing gloves and face coverings entered the U-Haul store on West Interstate 65 Service Road around 1 a.m., started a pair of Ford E-450 box trucks and rammed the gate, according to court records.
About two hours later, a U-Haul truck crashed into the front of Hall’s motorsports store on I-65 Service Road.
Surveillance video shows nine people wearing face and head coverings went in and stole eight motorcycles and put them in the second U-Haul truck. Police later found two of the motorcycles, which appeared to have fallen from the truck, in the area of the store off I-65 Service Road.
Investigators later tracked down three of the motorcycles and one of the trucks in the New Orleans area. The second truck ended up in Mobile, and authorities never found the other three motorcycles, according to court records.
According to court records, investigators used cell phone information to place Maxon and Jackson in Mobile at the time of the burglaries.
Police officers searched Jackson’s home on D’Hemecourt Street in New Orleans and found a motorcycle that had been reported stolen from Lafayette, Louisiana, last March.
“A photo of a shoe rack in JACKSON’S room showed a pair of shoes that stood out and were very noticeable,” Maxon’s consent statement reads. “They had a reddish color on the vamp (top above the toes), tongue of the shoe and white stripes on the quarter (sides) of the shoes. The shoes matched the shoes of one of the subjects from the motosport break-in of the hall in Mobile.”
Internet search history on Maxon’s phone showed searches for mobile intrusions and news. The day after the break-in, Maxon sent someone a link to a “caught in the act” segment of FOX10 News about the Hall’s Motorsports break-in, per his consent form.
Maxon later told law enforcement officials that he sold one of the motorcycles to a Houston resident for $1,500, according to the plea document. A search of his home on Lancelot Drive in New Orleans that same day turned up handwritten notes about motorcycle shops in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Maxon also made incriminating statements during phone calls recorded by prison guards while he was incarcerated.
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