A Hillsboro woman was sentenced to three years of community control in Highland County Common Pleas Court.
Avalon Rich, 21, was sentenced for two counts of receiving stolen property, both fourth-degree felonies.
Court records stated that Rich must successfully complete the TRC Substance Use Disorder program and aftercare.
According to court documents for the first count, on Oct. 21, 2022, somebody reported that their 2000 silver Audi TT car had been stolen from their home on Golden Doubloon Lane in Hillsboro. On Nov. 1, 2022, a sergeant arrived on Rock Road to try and serve a civil paper but the property looked like it was vacant. The sergeant knocked on the door of a mobile home but didn’t get any response.
While they were walking back to their patrol vehicle, the sergeant noticed tracks in the tall grass near the back of the mobile home. The sergeant looked behind the mobile home and saw a silver Audi backed up against the mobile home. The sergeant ran the VIN on the vehicle and confirmed that it was the Audi TT that had been reported as stolen on Oct. 21, 2022. A search warrant was obtained for both the property and the residence.
Deputies got to the property and knocked on the front door of the mobile home and while announcing themselves. A female who identified herself as Rich opened the door. Rich was placed in handcuffs and advised of her Miranda Rights. Rich said that the other person at the location ran out of the back door and fled the area.
Rich also said that person got to the residence with the vehicle in question the prior day. She said she knew the vehicle had been stolen. The keys to the vehicle were on a chair inside the residence. The other person was interviewed by a detective at the Highland County Justice Center on Jan. 4, 2023. During the interview, the suspect admitted to being in possession of the Audi.
According to court documents for the second count, on Dec. 30, 2022, a deputy responded to Heathermoor Trail in reference to a report of a red Razor go-kart that had been stolen. While they were at the residence, the deputy spoke to a neighbor that reported that they saw two people steal the go-kart. The neighbor also said the two people were in a car that had been spray painted white apart from the trunk, which was black.
On Dec. 31, 2022, the go-kart owner reported that they believed that the vehicle involved in the go-kart theft was not at a resident at Forest Cove Circle in Paint Township, Highland County. Two deputies responded there and saw a red go-kart on the front yard and a BMW in the driveway spray-painted white.
One of the deputies detected the odor of fresh paint coming from the BMW. The Ohio license plate came back to a 2020 black four-door Sedan, with the front dash VIN plate covered by a piece of cardboard. The deputy also saw that the BMW in the driveway at Forest Cove Circle resembled a BMW that had been reported as stolen from a dealership in early December 2022.
The deputy then made contact with the property owner, who was questioned about the red go-kart and the BMW. They also said that someone else and Rich arrived the day before at the residence in the BMW and that they also believed the go-kart was inside the car. The deputy next initiated contact with Rich in the driveway.
Rich initially said that she arrived with the third person and that she didn’t know anything about the BMW or the go-kart being stolen. She was placed under arrest and taken into custody on an outstanding warrant.
The deputy then spoke to the first person again and asked that they try to find the BMW key from inside the residence, which they did. The deputy removed the cardboard that was blocking the VIN plate and ran it through LEADS, coming back as the BMW entered by the Union Township Police Department that was stolen from the car dealership.
The deputy also noticed a photo of Rich and the person in the previous on the driver’s floorboard of the BMW. After finding the photo, the deputy once again spoke to Rich. She admitted that the third person never exited and that she got to the current residence in the BMW with the person from the first count. The original person from the second count said that they were with the person from the first count when they stole the BMW and that they’d been living inside it since the theft.
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
