Post by cviller on Aug 21, 2007 10:55:32 GMT -5
By Mike Casazza
Daily Mail sportswriter
MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia University football players J.T. Thomas III and Ellis Lankster face a preliminary hearing on charges of transferring and receiving stolen property.
The two potential starters for the No. 3-ranked Mountaineers are alleged to have been responsible for the theft of a laptop computer from a residence during a party.
A 32-inch television also was stolen, but it has not been recovered.
Lankster and Thomas are scheduled to appear Sept. 10 before Monongalia County Magistrate Jennifer Wilson.
A witness who was at the party but asked not to be identified said a third person was involved.
"They all came together and all left together at the same time," he said. "They weren't there to hang out or anything. They were there for 10 or 15 minutes before they left, which is when it was discovered the stuff was missing."
The witness did not know the identity of the third person.
"Not by his face," he said. "Nobody knew his name or anything like that."
WVU Coach Rich Rodriguez, who had imposed an 11 p.m. curfew for Saturday night, issued a statement Sunday saying he was investigating the incident. He will wait before making further comment on the status of Lankster, a 5-foot-10, 190-pound junior college transfer from Whistler, Ala., and Thomas, a 6-2, 200-pound linebacker from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
According to the incident report, Lankster, 21, and Thomas, 19, were arrested at 1:51 a.m.
The players were taken to Monongalia County's holding center and were arraigned before Magistrate Jim Nabors later Sunday morning and released on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond.
The incident began when Morgantown Police Department Pfc. William Runyan responded to a burglary call at 1:11 a.m. at a party at 2627 University Ave.
The report said one of the residents, Kyle Ackerman, noticed three males "acting suspicious" by the bathroom. A second resident, Zach Pellarin, supported Ackerman's observation.
One suspect wore a red hat and "appeared to be acting as a lookout for the other two individuals." Pellarin said another suspect, who had "cornrow braids," appeared to have something under his shirt as he left the party.
Pellarin told Runyan he saw the suspects get into and leave in a dark blue car driven by the suspect wearing the red hat.
As Runyan investigated, a 911 dispatcher contacted him to say a witness from the party had spotted the dark blue car at the McDonald's on the Evansdale campus. Runyan responded and met the witness, who said the suspects had just left.
Moments later, Runyan saw a blue Oldsmobile on a nearby road and initiated a traffic stop. The occupants identified themselves as Lankster, who was driving, and Thomas, who, according to the police report, wore his hair in cornrows.
"In plain view on the floor behind the passenger seat was a Dell laptop computer," Runyan wrote in his report.
Runyan asked who the computer belonged to and Thomas said it was his. Pellarin and Ackerman then showed up at the scene and identified Lankster and Thomas as two of the three suspects. Ackerman also provided a password and a description of the computer's screen saver as proof it was his.
"Mr. Thomas stated to me that he bought the computer for $35 at McDonald's," Runyan wrote.
Runyan then discovered a red St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap under the driver's seat. The hat and a screwdriver found on Thomas were taken as evidence.
"Both Mr. Thomas and Mr. Lankster stated that they had just dropped off another individual prior to being pulled over," Runyan wrote.
No additional information was provided in the report about the third suspect or the television, which is valued at $600.
Contact sportswriter Mike Casazza at mikec@dailymail.com or 437-4491.
