Three Scott County 18-year-olds have been charged in Scott Circuit Court in connection with a burglary and theft of a safe and its cash contents from a Scottsburg residence.
Charged with burglary and theft of more than $750 were:
•Jordan Carolina Ailes, 18, of Lexington.
•Fisher Jeffery Richart, 18, of Scottsburg.
•Kaleb Lee Smith, 18, of Scottsburg.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed by Scott County Sheriff’s Deputy James R. Ward, the three worked cooperatively to remove a safe and its contents from the victim’s bedroom.
The victim told the deputy that upon returning to the McClain Avenue residence from a trip to Tennessee in the early morning hours of Saturday, March 27, the safe was missing from the home.
The victim told the deputy that that the front room of the residence had been rented to Richart for a period of time. It was during this time that Richart convinced the victim that a safe was needed to keep the victim’s cash in. According to the probable cause, Richart provided the victim with a safe and a key to secure any money.
When the deputy met with the victim and Richart at his parent’s residence on West Helton Road, the court document reported that “without being asked any questions about the theft, Richart began to freely talk about the incident.”
According to the probable cause affidavit, Ward reported Richart “explained to me that he did not really want to take the money, however he was with two friends who pressured him into making a bad decision.”
Richard said the three went into the victim’s bedroom and took the safe he provided to the victim. They then drove to his parents’ Helton Road home and asked his mother for the spare key to the safe which she provided, the deputy reported.
Richart told the deputy he, along with Ailes and Smith, opened the safe and split up the cash inside. The trio then threw the safe into the Scottsburg Reservoir.
Richart provided a plastic bag containing $1,680 which he told the deputy was his portion. Ward said that Richart agreed to ride with him to his accomplices’ homes.
Then the pair arrived at Smith’s S. Vienna Road residence, Smith seeing the sheriff’s vehicle, immediately exited the residence and handed the deputy a roll of cash with a rubber band around it—later determined to be $1,000— and stated “this is my portion of the money,” the court document read.
The deputy said that Smith agreed to ride with him and Richart to Ailes’s home on South Water Street in Lexington.
Ward reported that initially Ailes denied any knowledge of the money and refused to discuss that matter with him. Ward then placed Ailes under arrest based on the information the others provided. After she was placed in the deputy’s patrol vehicle with her friends, Ailes asked the deputy to accompany her back into her home so she could retrieve her portion of the money which totaled $960, the probable cause read.
The trio was booked into Scott County Jail around noon on March 27. After documenting it, the money was returned to the victim, the court document read.
In their initial appearance before Scott County Magistrate Alison Frazier, Ailes and Smith’s bond was set at $5,000 cash each. Richart’s bond was set at $50,000 corporate or $5,000 cash. All three posted bond and were released from custody.
