BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A 35-year-old Keystone Heights man was sentenced to 30 months with the Department of Corrections after pleading to stealing a stereo from a Starke retailer and being in possession of glass pipes with methamphetamine residue on them.
Henry Wimberly, IV pleaded to felony petit theft and use or possession of drug paraphernalia.
According to an arrest report, a Walmart employee told deputies that two women were in the restroom snorting cocaine. After deputies identified the vehicle in the retailer’s parking lot where the women were, they observed the defendant approach the gold-colored Mitsubishi, holding a stereo.
“Contact was made with Wimberly, who requested we get his cigarettes out of the driver’s door,” wrote Deputy James D. Hall in the report. “Wimberly gave consent for Cpl. Lovell to get the cigarettes from the driver’s door. Upon opening the driver’s door and looking in the pocket, Cpl. Lovell observed two glass pipes with residue inside them.”
Following a Miranda warning, the suspect gave conflicting statements about the vehicle’s ownership, first claiming to own it, then stating he was in the process of purchasing it, and finally saying he was attempting to sell the car.
The 35-year-old denied the pipes were his property despite being in possession of the vehicle’s key. The residue in both pipes tested positive for methamphetamine.
The suspect later admitted to stealing the stereo he put in the Mitsubishi and stated he had planned to exchange it with an old one.
As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped a felony charge of possession of a controlled substance.
The defendant’s prior convictions include petit theft, robbery, burglary, dealing in stolen property, no vehicle registration, felony driving with a suspended or revoked license- habitual offender, reckless driving, and fleeing or attempting to elude.
