Three of four felony charges filed against Dustin Thomas Johnson, 40, were certified to a Rockbridge County grand jury following a preliminary hearing on Friday.
Johnson has been charged with one count of grand larceny, one count of entering a building with intent to commit larceny and one count of larceny of a firearm in connection to a breakin and theft that occurred in the 3600 block of Bluegrass Trail in July. The fourth charge, one count of possession of a firearm by a nonviolent felon, was dismissed. Judge Christopher Billias said he dismissed that charge due to the commonwealth’s attorney not presenting any evidence during the preliminary hearing that Johnson is a convicted felon.
Humberto Portellez, the prosecuting attorney, called three witnesses during the hearing. His first witness, Donald Altizer Jr., was the victim of the theft. Altizer testified that, on July 25 he went out to the garage located on his property at 3669 Bluegrass Trail and saw that the garage door was “about halfway up.” He said he hadn’t been to the garage since July 21 and all of the doors on the garage were closed when he’d left it.
Upon entering the garage, Altizer said he discovered several items were missing, including a 2017 Honda Rancher fourwheeler that he’d modified with a wench and a snowplow attachment, which he estimated had a value of $10,000. He also said there was a gun rack on the four-wheeler that had a Charles Daly 20 gauge pump action shotgun on it, which were also missing. He also had several other tools were missing, including four chainsaws: two Husqvarna chainsaws, one battery-powered Bauer chainsaw and one Milwaukee chainsaw that was missing its front brake. The Husqvarna chainsaws were unique, Altizer said, because they didn’t have bar covers when he bought them and he’d purchased Sthil brand covers for them both. He also said that a set of wrenches and a pair of red bolt cutters were missing.
In addition to the tools, Altizer testified that a number of food items he kept in the garage were also missing. Two Ziploc freezer bags of frozen trout were missing from the freezer in the garage, as was a box of Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies. He also said that several cans – eight by his estimate – of Kayak brand peach-flavored smokeless tobacco had been taken. Portellez asked Altizer where he purchased the tobacco and Altizer said he bought it in Covington because it wasn’t usually carried in any of the tobacco stores in Rockbridge County.
Portellez next called Lt. Chris Young with the Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office. Young testified that on July 28, he and other officers went to a house on Springfield Lane in Natural Bridge to locate Johnson after identifying him as a suspect in the theft. Johnson became a suspect, Young said, due to the fact that he was residing in a house on Bluegrass Trail not far from Altizer’s property at the time and due to a previous criminal history of thefts.
Upon arriving at the Springfield Lane property, deputies found Johnson inside a shed on the property, which the owner said was being rented by a woman and no one should be in the shed. The door to the shed was locked from the inside when officers approached it and they heard a male’s voice responding to them, saying he had to get dressed before opening the door. Lt. Young said that when the door was open and Johnson taken into custody, he did a sweep of the shed, noting a bed in the right back corner of the building and a chair in the opposite corner. In a small stack of items in front of the chair, Young said he found a can of Kayak brand peach-flavored smokeless tobacco.
Outside of the shed was a van, and Young said he saw a Husqvarna chainsaw with a Stihl brand blade cover inside it through a window. Upon searching the van, no other items related to the theft were recovered there. During his testimony, Altizer testified that he had been shown a picture of a Husqvarna chainsaw with a Sthil blade cover that had been found by police and had identified it as his, though on cross examination he acknowledged that he did not have records of the serial numbers for the tools that were taken and had not been able to provide them to investigators for identification of any recovered items.
Portellez’s third and final witness was Investigator Ryan McCullough, who testified about a search of a house located at 3416 Bluegrass Trail, which belongs to Johnson’s sister and where Johnson was residing in July when the theft occurred. A pair of red bolt cutters was found outside of the residence, which McCullough said were a “visual match” to the description of the ones taken from Altizer’s garage. Altizer later identified the bolt cutters as his from a photograph.
During a search of the main residence of the property, several items related to the theft were found in a trash can in the kitchen: three cans of Kayak brand peach-flavored smokeless tobacco, a plastic case for a wrench set (the wrenches themselves were not recovered) and an empty box of Cosmic Brownies. Two Ziploc bags of frozen trout were also found in the freezer in the kitchen, and while Johnson’s sister initially said that the trout could be hers, she later “changed her position” on that.
McCullough testified that there were two security cameras on the property, one by the front door and one on the back porch. After obtaining the SD cards from both cameras, it was discovered the camera on the back porch had been inactive from July 20 through July 25. McCullough also testified about evidence recovered from a phone that was found on the bed in the shed at the Springfield Lane property. Several accounts under Johnson’s name were found on the phone, and the internet search history on the phone included several searches related to Honda Rancher four-wheelers, including whether they had trackers or GPS systems, made on July 27.
None of the other stolen items had been recovered as of Friday’s hearing.
Madeline Robinson, Johnson’s defense attorney, called no witnesses but did argue against certifying the charges to the grand jury, noting the circumstantial nature of the evidence, the lack of concrete identification of the recovered items with serial numbers and the fact that none of the other stolen items had been recovered and the fact that there was little evidence pointing directly to Johnson as a suspect beyond the location of his residence and his criminal history.
“Mere proximity is not enough to rise above the probable cause standard,” she argued. “I simply do not believe this rises to the commonwealth’s burden [of proof] at this point.”
Portellez acknowledged that the evidence was circumstantial, but argued that the commonwealth “can still establish probable cause.” He pointed to the fact that several items related to the theft being found “in proximity” to Johnson “in two different locations” – most notably, the cans of smokeless tobacco – and to the search history on the phone, which he called “the most damning evidence.”
“This evidence allows the court to find probable cause in this case,” he concluded.
The charges will go to the grand jury on Nov. 3.
