Man jailed on charges related to 3 burglaries

A Cape Girardeau man is in jail on six felony charges on allegations he burglarized three properties in as many weeks in Cape Girardeau County.

Jason Reid Terry, 36, admitted he broke into shop buildings on County Road 645, a garage on County Road 214 and a residence on County Road 208, according to a probable-cause statement filed in the case Thursday.

Terry, who is in the Cape Girardeau County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bond, faces three counts of second-degree burglary, two counts of theft of a firearm and one count of felony stealing, online court records show.

Sgt. Eric Friedrich of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department said the burglaries were unusually alarming because they occurred during the day.

"We take all burglaries seriously, but any time you have a rash of somebody doing daytime burglaries, that kind of kicks it up a notch for us," Friedrich said. "When you get someone that is breaking into a house in broad daylight, that is a desperate person."

The first burglary, reported Oct. 29, occurred on County Road 645, where the victim discovered someone had forced open several of his shop buildings and taken about $2,300 worth of mechanic tools, detective Travis Sikes of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department wrote in the probable-cause statement.

On Nov. 10, a woman reported the theft of a weed trimmer, leaf blower and air compressor worth about $430 from the attached garage at her home on County Road 214, Sikes wrote.

In the third burglary, reported Tuesday, a woman reported someone had damaged a dog door at her home on County Road 208 and stole two 12-gauge shotguns and an LCD television with a combined value of about $4,000, Sikes wrote.

Authorities arrested Terry on Wednesday after the owner of a local secondhand business identified him as the man who sold him two shotguns and a television Tuesday afternoon while deputies were investigating a related burglary complaint, Sikes wrote.

Before Terry's arrest, authorities recovered the guns and television from the store owner and identified them as belonging to one of the victims, Sikes wrote.

They also recovered a victim's weed trimmer from the store, he wrote.

On Monday, authorities recovered a victim's portable air compressor and three-drawer toolbox, which Terry had sold, Sikes wrote.

Terry, who has prior convictions for a 2000 burglary in North Carolina and a 2001 burglary in Ohio, eventually confessed to the three burglaries in Cape Girardeau County, Sikes wrote.

"He did tell us that he had fallen on hard times," Friedrich said.

Online court records show Terry's case had not yet been set for arraignment Thursday.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau County, MO