ST. GEORGE — A Nevada man was arrested on a warrant issued in connection with a case involving a vehicle that was reportedly stolen from a local car dealership while in the shop for repairs in January.
Adam Matthew Hughes, 29, of Boulder City, Nevada, was booked into the Washington County Jail on a warrant for second-degree felony theft and third-degree felony burglary Friday morning.
The warrant was issued in connection with a case involving a report of a vehicle taken from a local car dealership near the Interstate 15 corridor Jan. 22, according to charging documents filed with the court.
Officers responded to investigate the call and spoke to an employee who told them one of the vehicles being worked on in the shop was missing when they arrived to work that day. The car was last seen at 6 p.m. the previous evening, and the next morning “the vehicle was gone,” the officer noted in the report.
Employees were unable to locate the car during a search of the property and called the police to report it as stolen. Officers then entered the vehicle information into the national database, which is relayed to officers nationwide listing the vehicle as stolen.
One week later, officers were advised the car had been located by police in Cedar City on the afternoon of Jan. 27. They also learned the car was in possession of the defendant when it was located by police.
During a telephone interview, the suspect allegedly told detectives in St. George that on the day the car went missing, he was walking along Hilton Drive and went onto the dealership property where he made entry into one of the service bays. After locating the keys to one of the vehicles in for repairs, he drove the car out of the lot and took it to Cedar City where it was later discovered by police.
Hughes was scheduled to return to St. George after the telephone interview, but when he failed to show up, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
The suspect was then located by Adult Probation and Parole and booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility.
This is not the first such case the suspect has allegedly been involved in.
On Jan. 29, 2019, the suspect was arrested on multiple charges, including one second-degree felony count of receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle, a third-degree felony of altering a vehicle registration title without a permit, along with misdemeanor assault and drug possession charges.
The arrest resulted from a traffic stop by a deputy in Iron County when he noticed a white passenger car that was allegedly involved in the incident he was responding to at the time.
The officer stopped the car in Enoch, and while speaking to the driver, later identified as Hughes, a K-9 conducting a sniff around the vehicle alerted to the possible presence of narcotics.
During a subsequent search of the vehicle, deputies allegedly located multiple syringes containing a brown tar-like substance consistent with heroin, along with a set of Utah license plates that were found inside of the vehicle that did not match the plate on the outside of the car.
A check of the plates found inside of the car revealed it was reportedly stolen.
During an interview with police, the suspect allegedly admitted to stealing the car from St. George and said he traded out the license plate using those obtained from a friend. He also said he “put the decal on in an effort to disguise the vehicle since he had stolen it,” the deputy noted in the report.
Hughes was taken into custody and booked into the Iron County Jail. He pleaded guilty to second-degree felony theft and misdemeanor assault as part of the plea agreement, while the state dismissed the remaining charges. Hughes was scheduled to be sentenced April 2.
However, a no bail warrant was issued March 19, 2019, after adult probation and parole notified the court that the defendant failed to check in after his release. The court was then notified that the suspect entered treatment, and two months later, Hughes was sentenced to serve 75 days in jail and the case was closed.
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