Two charged in burglaries

Police follow
footprints in the
snow to suspects

By Jody Norwood
Tribune-Courier News Editor
jnorwood@tribunecourier.com

BENTON – Not everything was quiet as snow blanketed the streets of Benton in the first hours of Saturday. Police have charged two Arkansas men with multiple burglaries along Birch and Elm streets.

Benton police and Marshall County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the calls.

“This is an excellent example of team work between the two agencies,” said cheif Tracy Watwood. “If it weren’t for such teamwork, this crime would not have been solved so expeditiously or may not have been solved at all.”

The Benton Police Department received a call just after midnight Saturday morning of a burglary in process at the 800 block of Birch Street. As officers made their way through the snow to the first call, a second burglary report came in, this time from the 800 block of Elm Street.

According to reports, Marshall County Sheriff’s Department deputy Nathan Maxlow observed two individuals– Timothy Pullen, 21, and Steven Fox, 32– running from the area toward the Benton Inn. Maxlow detained the suspects. Benton officer William Treadway investigated the scene, determining that several residences in the area of both calls had been broken into. Officers were able to track two individual sets of footprints in the snow to the site where Maxlow had detained Pullen and Fox.

A search of the suspects hotel room at the Benton Inn yielded items such as electronics and medication believed to be taken during the burglaries. According to reports, both men confessed to officers of comitting the burglaries.

Pullen, of Arkadelphia, Ark., was charged with six counts each of second degree burglary of a residence and second degree crminal mischief, two counts of unlawful taking more than $500 and one count of possession of burglary tools.

Fox, of Hot Springs, Ark., was charged with three counts each of second degree residental burglary and complicity to second degree burglary, and two counts of theft by unlawful taking more than $500.

The investigation remains open.