Ellsworth teenagers charged with burglary

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Two Ellsworth teenagers were charged earlier this month in Pierce County Circuit Court with three counts of burglary.

The next court appearances for Brandon M. Kimbler, 19, 541 Burton Circle, and James M. Leonard, 18, N5076 860th St., are pre-trial conferences scheduled for May 14 and April 24, respectively.

The pair is accused of committing three burglaries over a four-day span in late March and early April. The places burglarized included the Prescott Public Works building and Wang’s Excavating south of River Falls.

According to the criminal complaint, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department became aware of the pair when a deputy pulled the two over in the early morning hours of April 1. During the stop, the deputy found some car batteries, copper wires, bolt cutters and other miscellaneous tools, which the pair said were the vehicle’s owner’s. The owner denied it.

Investigators received information the Prescott Public Works building had been burglarized the previous night. Public works employees came to the sheriff’s impound lot and were able to identify dozens of items in the car--battery charger, sawzall, bolt cutters, receiver hitch, sledge hammer and hacksaw--that belonged to the department.

A further search of the vehicle turned up a GPS, which didn’t belong to the owner. The coordinates for it led to a scrap metal recycling place in Red Wing, where workers had information Kimbler sold the yard 344 pounds of batteries on March 28 and Leonard on March 30, over 600 batteries, an aluminum radiator, two other brass radiators and aluminum rims.

For more please read the April 18 print version of the Herald.

Tags: news, wisconsin, crime, courts