Arrests made in connection with vehicle theft case

ODESSA – On July 21, 2021, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputies Dain Harden and Jon Evans were dispatched to a vehicle theft in progress at Govan Road North and Obrien Road East. Upon arrival, Harden and Evans found that the vehicle owner Evan Jones had detained the suspect Riley Vail. Once Vail was placed under arrest, the deputies discovered that a truck at the scene was stolen out of Spokane County and that Jones had a 1999 Ford F-250 stolen from this location. The owner of the recovered vehicle was notified and gave consent for Deputies Harden and Evans to search it. In searching the vehicle, they found a wallet that belonged to a Cody Magruder. Also found inside this stolen vehicle were a glass pipe with burn residue, a butane lighter and an opened bottle of Jim Beam Whiskey.

Vail was transported to the LCSO and booked for possession of a stolen vehicle (for the white Dodge he was in possession of), vehicular theft for the Ford truck stolen from Jones, theft in the first degree for the $5,315 worth of items taken and two counts of vehicle prowling in the second degree for the two vehicles from which he stole items at Jones’ property.

During the course of this investigation, Deputy Harden was able to tie theft and malicious mischief charges involving a Lincoln County Public Works grader to Vail and Magruder.

On July 22, Lincoln County Undersheriff Kelly Watkins stopped a vehicle traveling eastbound through Odessa for a defective exhaust system and a defective windshield. Watkins identified the passenger in the car as Cody Magruder based on his Washington driver’s license. Watkins arrested Magruder for theft in the first degree, possession of a stolen vehicle, theft of a motor vehicle, vehicle prowling in the second degree (x2) and malicious mischief in the second degree. The female driver told Watkins that Magruder summoned her to come pick him up in Moses Lake.

Watkins re-contacted the driver of the vehicle he stopped earlier, trying to establish a timeline of the events leading up to the time she picked up Magruder. Watkins learned that Magruder sent the driver GPS coordinates for his location and told her to come get him before the cops found him. The GPS coordinates put Magruder near Black Rock Lake in Grant County.

On Aug. 4, Watkins enlisted the help of Odessa pilot Stan Dammel to fly over the area of Black Rock Lake in an attempt to locate Jones’ stolen pickup. After approximately 1.5 hours of flying, the vehicle was located behind buildings near the intersection of Rd Q NE and Rd 14.3 NE in Grant County. With the assistance of the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, we obtained photos clearly depicting the vehicle and its location. The owner positively identified his pickup from those photos.

Deputy Harden drafted a search warrant that was signed by Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Barkdull. On Aug. 5, the warrant was served by Undersheriff Watkins and Deputy Harden, and the stolen vehicle was recovered and returned to Evan Jones.

Sheriff Wade Magers credits good police work, interdepartmental cooperation and the assistance of Odessa pilot Stan Dammel for the positive outcome of this case.