Trio arrested on robbery charges

Monday, January 2, 2017

Believed to be in possession of other stolen items

Three Marion County residents rung in the new year as Putnam County Jail inmates after their New Year’s Eve arrests on multiple charges.

Christopher S. Horn, 42, and Seth D. Bay, 40, both of Indianapolis, and Regina C. Taylor, 36, Camby, all face preliminary charges of Level 5 felony burglary, Level 5 felony conversion and Level 6 felony theft for a series of Dec. 31 incidents.

Horn is also charged with Level 6 felony possession of hypodermic needles and Class C misdemeanor possession of paraphernalia, while Bay and Taylor have additional charges of Class A misdemeanor resisting law enforcement.

Putnam County sheriff’s Deputy Matt Biggs received the first call apparently related to the trio at 9:36 a.m.

Biggs responded to Motel 6 in Cloverdale, where the manager had been reviewing the previous night’s surveillance video.

At approximately 6:30 a.m., a white Ford F150 extended cab pulling a white box trailer entered the parking lot of the motel. At various times, all three occupants of the vehicles — two men and one woman — are seen entering the lobby, allegedly to inquire about the cost of a room.

The surveillance shows the truck pulling up behind a flatbed pickup with a generator and gas can on the bed. The subjects from the truck can be seen trying to remove the generator from the truck, but it is chained and locked to the bed.

One of the men can, however, be seen taking the gas canister from the bed.

Deputies were unable to locate the suspect vehicle.

At 2:30 p.m., police were disptached to an reported theft in progress at 4106 W. CR 125 South. Minutes later, dispatch was notified of the subjects fleeing the scene in a white Ford pickup.

A third dispatch came in of a white Ford pickup broken down in front of 4509 W. CR 75 South, with occupants fleeing on foot into the woods.

Biggs arrived on the scene to find a man he recognized from the earlier surveillance video, as he was wearing the same coat and baseball cap with an insignia of “DOPE” on it. The man was detained and during pat down told Biggs he had a pouch containing hypodermic needles.

Located in an inside pocket, the pouch contained two needles, a spoon and a thick rubber band-like material generally used for ingesting narcotics. A third hypodermic needle was found elsewhere.

The man was discovered to be Christopher Horn.

Shortly thereafter, police observed the other two suspects running across a nearby field.

Available officers set up a perimeter with Greencastle Officer Kyle Lee and his K-9 partner Cain deployed for tracking.

Conservation Officer Patrick Labhart was able to intercept the male subject, identified as Seth Bay, while Deputy Virgil Lanning, Lee and Cain tracked down and took the female, identified as Regina Taylor, into custody.

All three were transported to the Putnam County Jail.

During the incident on 125 South, Taylor is alleged to have asked one of the residents to use his cell phone and is believed to have called Horn.

She and Bay told the residents they had run out of gas, although Bay was seen carrying the stolen gas can with fuel splashing out of it. They fled the scene after being confronted over the inconsistencies in their story as well as for stolen items in the bed of the truck.

Besides allegedly being caught in the act on County Road 125 South, Horn, Bay and Taylor are believed to have stolen a pair of ATVs that were found in the trailer and were later reported stolen from a garage on County Road 150 South.

In that incident, a neighbor saw a white Ford pickup pulling an encolosed trailer.

The pickup and trailer are also believed to have been stolen, although from locations outside Putnam County. Biggs reported that the pickup had the number 1487 on the side of the hood, as if was a company vehicle, as well as a placard on the rear door. Both had been spray painted over.

Interviewing one of the subjects, PCSD Det. Doug Nally pieced together the events of the day.

Nally was told that Bay stole the truck sometime prior to Dec. 31. The trio left Indianapolis in the early morning hours and allegedly stole the box trailer from an unknown location. Upon entering Putnam County, the trio made stops at Motel 6 and the residences on 150 South and 125 South.

With the holiday over the weekend, no court date had been set for Horn, Bay or Taylor as of Monday.

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  • Hope all three of these loser criminals get locked up for a good while. It's really sad when you have to drive from Marion County to Putnam County to commit a crime.

    -- Posted by Queen53 on Wed, Jan 4, 2017, at 8:08 AM
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