Yuma County Sheriff’s Office Solves Multiple Theft Cases
Deputies with the Yuma County Sheriff’s office have been busy this spring and summer investigating and tracking down property from burglaries and thefts in connection with County residents Van Wisdom and Chester Spelts respectively. These crimes have been committed all over Northeast Colorado, Southwest Nebraska, and Northwest Kansas, and involved many different agencies from within those areas. Yuma County Sheriff’s Office Deputies have been working with those other jurisdictions as well as the District Attorney’s Office to determine how all of the cases are connected, who should be charged and held accountable, and which agencies should submit those charges to move the appropriate cases into the courts.
There are a total of 10 burglary and theft cases that either have been presented to the DAs office already or will be soon, charging Mr. Wisdom or Mr. Spelts for those crimes, 6 for Wisdom and 4 for Spelts. Some of those cases involved multiple victims and some of the cases involve multiple criminal episodes that have been rolled into one.
In the 4 cases that Mr. Spelts either has been or will be charged with, just less than $73,000 worth of property has been recovered and is being held as evidence or has been returned to its rightful owner. Those items include weapons, tools, vehicles, and trailers.
In the 6 cases that will be presented to the DA’s office charging Mr. Wisdom, just over $76,000 worth of property has been recovered and is being held as evidence or has been returned to its rightful owner.
While these cases have been or will soon be presented to the District Attorney’s Office for charges, there is other property that has been recovered or identified where investigations continue to determine the rightful owners of that property, and who should be held accountable for depriving those owners of it.
Yuma County Sheriff Chad Day commented, “I’m really proud of the persistent work my deputies have done to recover this property and solve these cases. Some of the property that we’ve recovered was taken from its owner 2 years ago. Yuma County residents should know and be proud that the Sheriff’s office continues to pursue those cases even when they don’t seem solvable.”
End of release