Advertisement
Terrell L. Quinn, 22, Kalan S. Mabins, 17, and Marcus L. Weston, 27, will each be charged with two counts of robbery by threat of force, and one count each of burglary, operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent and criminal damage to property, Deputy District Attorney Loralee Clark said during a court hearing Thursday. Weston could also be charged with resisting arrest, Clark said.
The men were driving a tan SUV that was reported stolen in Winona, La Crosse Police Chief Ed Kondracki said, and were arrested just minutes after they were seen breaking into a house in the 100 block of South 10th Street.
Kondracki said information from residents and cooperation between officers from three law enforcement agencies led to the quick arrests.
Police say that during the brief crime spree, which started just before 9 p.m., the trio robbed and threatened to kill a 25-year-old man outside Kramer’s Bar at 1123 S. Third St. and an 18-year-old man in the parking lot of St. Joseph the Workman Cathedral before breaking into a home at 101 S. 10th St.
In the robberies, police said, the men stole a small amount of cash, one wallet, a Gameboy, an mp3 player, a radio, headphones and three shoes.
Police managed to track the men, thanks to a neighbor who saw the men getting into the SUV and described them, the vehicle and license plate number to police.
At 9:24 p.m., a Shelby police officer saw someone matching Quinn’s description go into the Arterial Tavern, 1003 S. 16th St., and stopped to question the man.
Meanwhile, a sheriff’s deputy spotted the vehicle nearby and La Crosse police saw Weston and Mabins running through an alley near the bar. Officers chased the pair on foot, but lost them in the 1600 block of Johnson Street. But a resident in the 1600 block of Adams street called police to report the men were hiding in his backyard.
The men were quickly found, but were combative with officers and jailers who tried to book the men into the La Crosse County Jail.
In court Thursday, Clark said Quinn and Weston have extensive criminal records but that Mabins apparently has a clean record.
Weston is currently on conditional release from the Winona County Jail with 16 charges pending from several incidents, including burglary, computer theft, assault with a dangerous weapon, domestic assault by strangulation and trespassing.
A jury trial set to begin Tuesday for Weston was postponed and an arrest warrant was issued when he failed to show up on time. He entered a Winona courtroom almost an hour late and the warrant was quashed. A new date has not yet been set.
Quinn is on probation in Minnesota for striking a police officer in the throat in April while the officer was questioning him in an ongoing investigation. And in 2004 he was convicted in Cook County, Ill., of delivery of a controlled substance.
During a bond hearing Thursday, La Crosse County Circuit Judge Dale Pasell ordered Quinn and Mabins each held on $20,000 cash bonds and set bond at $30,000 cash for Weston.
Winona Daily News reporter Kevin Behr contributed to this report.
