Here are a few of the criminal law stories that have recently occurred around the state of Alabama:
- A 29-year-old Bessemer resident has been charged in the shotgun shooting death of his friend and coworker. According to investigators, the suspect, Joseph Lenair Burston, and the suspect, 24-year-old Allen Jamichael Wilson, were at a home in the 100 block of Deadrick Street this past Saturday evening when the two began arguing. Burston allegedly used a sawed-off shotgun to shoot and kill Wilson. Officers responded at 2:45 a.m., declared Wilson dead at the scene and took Burston into custody. Burston is being charged with both murder and possession of a sawed-off shotgun. He is being held in the Bessemer City Jail awaiting transfer to the Jefferson County Jail with a bond set at $90,000.
- Alabama state troopers arrested a Montgomery man Wednesday after discovering more than $44,000 in stolen property. The troopers stopped 40-year-old William Addison while he was driving in Hartselle. The troopers had learned that the vehicle had been stolen from Prattville and after stopping Addison, they arrested him for first-degree receiving stolen property and resisting arrest. The Alabama State Bureau of Investigation later determined was other stolen property in Coffee County and Geneva County. Working with Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Aviation, the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office, Geneva County Sheriff’s Office, Hartford Police Department, Enterprise Police Department, Prattville Police Department and the Alabama Drug Enforcement Task Force, the agents were able to obtain search warrants on two residences, search a third property and recover two SUVs, two trailers and two drones. The property was worth about $44,000. Officers reported the investigation is ongoing and have not released any further details.
- A Birmingham self-proclaimed “cigarette band” was recently put back behind bars after Hoover police say the man smashed in the front door of two Hoover stores and stole several cartons of cigarettes. The suspect, 23-year-old Joshua Magaul Sanders, has been charged with two counts of third degree burglary for two separate incidents in January and March. Sanders had 27 previous charges in just three years, including multiple times in 2015 where he did the exact same thing at the Exxon station on John Hawkins Parkway and in several other municipalities. Hoover police said both recent incidents (the Exxon station at 2270 John Hawkins Parkway and the Shell Station on South Shades Crest Road) had security footage in which a man smashed through the front glass door, stuffed several cartons of cigarettes into a garbage bag and tried to open the cash register by throwing it on the ground before fleeing the scene. Chief Deputy Randy Christian of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said officers responded to a burglary alarm at a Chalkville Mountain Road convenience store shortly before midnight on Sunday. The front door was shattered and Sanders was fleeing. After a brief foot chase, he was arrested after also admitting to breaking into several other stores in Jefferson and surrounding counties. In addition to the expected cartons of cigarettes, Sanders also had on him a handgun, methamphetamine ecstasy and marijuana. A further check into Sanders’s record revealed he had outstanding warrants for charges of third-degree burglary, second-degree theft of property and criminal mischief.
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