Suspected store thieves captured at gunpoint

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March 1, 2013

Suspected store thieves captured at gunpoint

Anonymous Weatherford Democrat The Weatherford Democrat Fri Mar 01, 2013, 07:39 AM CST

By CHRISTIN COYNE

HUDSON OAKS – Hudson Oaks police say two suspects who attempted to sneak a flat-screen television out of Walmart Saturday and fled officers in a vehicle were caught at gunpoint, with a third captured after jumping from the vehicle.

An off-duty Parker County Special Crimes Unit deputy was shopping when she noticed suspicious activity by a suspect and alerted the store’s loss prevention employee, according to Hudson Oaks police, who were called to the store around 4 p.m.

The loss prevention employee reportedly told police he was following two suspects who appeared to be preparing to shoplift a flat-panel LCD TV.

The man and woman, who appeared to be working together and were later identified as 22-year-old Ross Wade Hogans and 22-year-old Misty Nicole Fonville, took the television into the lawn and garden section and exited the east fire escape door, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Police Cpl. Marshall Clark wrote that he then observed an SUV driving quickly toward a man running through the parking lot with a large TV box.

He watched Hogans and Fonville get into the vehicle with the television and stopped his police vehicle with his emergency lights activated in front of the SUV and ordered the driver to stop, Clark wrote.

However, the driver, later identified as 33-year-old Norman Thomas Miller, reportedly reversed in the vehicle and sped away through the crowded parking lot, pursued by the officer.

After traveling down the north Interstate 20 service road, the suspect vehicle continued driving on Cinema Drive, where the Hogans leaped from the vehicle and began running southbound through a field, ignoring the officer’s commands to stop, Clark wrote.

Miller then stopped the SUV and “the male driver exited the vehicle and began approaching me in an aggressive manner,” Clark wrote. “I deployed my patrol rifle and ordered the suspect to the ground at gunpoint.”

As he held Miller and Fonville at gunpoint, Clark provided responding officers with a description of Hogans.

Hogans was quickly apprehended, as well, according to police.

The television and other property believed to have been stolen were found in the SUV, along with a crack pipe and several hypodermic syringes.

Miller was charged with evading arrest or detention with a vehicle, class A misdemeanor engaging in organized criminal activity and theft of property, more than $500, less than $1,500.

Fonville was charged with class A misdemeanor engaging in organized criminal activity and theft of property, more than $500, less than $1,500.

Hogans was charged with evading arrest or detention, class A misdemeanor engaging in organized criminal activity and theft of property, more than $500, less than $1,500.

Hogans and Fonville have since been charged with burglary of a building, a state jail felony, as well, according to jail records.

The two are accused in a break-in at Christy’s Smoke Shop on Dec. 30 after police received a tip via Crime Stoppers, court records state. Thirty cartons of cigarettes were reported missing by the owner.

Hogans was also convicted of class B misdemeanor theft of property last year regarding a shoplifting incident at a Weatherford shoe store on April 11.

Hogans and another suspect were caught and the stolen shoes recovered after one of the men reportedly pushed a store clerk to the ground and fled into a nearby wooded area.