Suspected getaway car in Sunday homicide found by officer investigating Ace Hardware theft
The getaway car that Mansfield police asked the public to be on the lookout for in connection to a homicide early Sunday morning on Blymyer Avenue has been located.
And when found Wednesday, it contained nearly $3,000 worth of stolen merchandise, according to a Mansfield police report.
A Mansfield police officer conducting a followup on a theft from Ace Hardware, 1515 Lexington Ave., "stumbled upon" the suspected getaway car on Hammond Avenue, according to Mansfield police Detective Lt. Rob Skropits.
Police then conducted a search warrant at the residence where the vehicle was found.
Dale Smith, 34, who resides at a residence in the 300 block of Hammond Avenue, was charged with receiving stolen property in connection with the Ace Hardware incident, according to police and court records.
Latest homicide case
Police believe the vehicle, a 2012 black Dodge Journey, was used by two homicide suspects to flee the scene on Blymyer Avenue after Jahajee Cobb, 25, was fatally shot about 2:24 a.m. Sunday.
It was the city's eighth homicide of 2023. Three other people who were shot at the same location on Sunday during a baby shower suffered what police described as non-life-threatening injuries.
The two homicide suspects were arrested by Mansfield police about 36 hours after the shootings.
Michael Lee Coffee Jr., 30, of Mansfield, and Avanta Shemar Dakota Payne Adams, 22, of Mansfield, are each charged with murder, a felony of the first degree. They remain in the Richland County Jail on a $1 million cash bond each.
Stolen merchandise inside getaway car, police say
According to a Mansfield police report, a man filled his cart at Ace Hardware on Wednesday with multiple items of merchandise and fled to into the parking lot, then drove away with the stolen goods. Upon a records check by officers, the vehicle's license plate returned to a a woman who resides at a residence in the 300 block of Hammond Avenue.
The woman, when contacted by officers in person at her residence, was asked who was driving her vehicle earlier in the day and she said her boyfriend had been driving it and had another male friend with him, according to the police report.
The stolen property, valued at $2,886, was found inside the car inside a garage at the Hammond Avenue residence.
Smith was arrested and taken to the Mansfield Police Department where a search of his person revealed narcotics in a cigarette package in his back pocket, according to police. He was taken to jail. The other man involved could not be located, the police report said. A request for charges was forwarded to the Richland County Prosecutor's Office for review.
Stolen merchandise found in the vehicle included miscellaneous security equipment, a bucket and broom, a Glade plug-in air freshener, as well as miscellaneous food stolen from unknown businesses, the police report said.
Due to Marsy's Law, police redacted victim information, names and addresses, and vehicle information on three police reports the News Journal requested regarding the address of a residence in the 300 block of Hammond Avenue. The report said someone (name redacted) had reported the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle on Monday, the day after the homicide.
The police report narrative said the car, which had not yet been returned to the victim, has a temporary tag in the right back window and two "Zac's Auto Sales" logos on the rear and front plates.
The suspect in the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle police report was listed as Michael Coffee Jr., whose address was listed as a transient in Mansfield. He has not been charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Suspected getaway car in homicide had $2,886 worth of stolen goods
