CLEARFIELD – The first day of a Strattanville man’s trial began on Monday, and it included testimony on how police tracked him.
Jerry Lee Ritchie 36, of Strattanville is charged with: 1) burglary, F2, 4 counts; 2) criminal trespass, F2, 4 counts; 3) theft by unlawful taking or disposition, M, 2 counts; 4)criminal mischief, M, 2 counts; and 5) criminal mischief, S. It is alleged that between July 20 and July 21, he burglarized four three Clearfield County business’s and one municipal building.
The owners of TL Bainey Trucking Inc. (Timothy L. Bainey), Apex Hydraulic and Machine (Adrian Powell) Â and DC Enterprises (Donald Conklin) all testified that their business had been broken into. All men testified that their facilities had been ransacked to some degree. Powell testified that in addition to his office being ransacked and his petty cash stolen, the perpetrator also removed the drain pipe from the kitchen sink in his business, then turned on the water and left it run, ruining the floor.
“What a lovely mess,” Powell said, when shown a picture the kitchen.
Powell testified the damage done to his building was between $2,500 and $2,700; Conklin testified the damage done to his building was about $100 and Bainey indicated a similar figure.
All three men testified that a shoe print was found at the scene; one on a piece of paper, one in lime, and another on an office chair. The shoe appeared to have a flat bottom, and was, as Clearfield County District Attorney Willialm A. Shaw Jr. called them, a water shoe.
Charles Read, Bradford Township Supervisor and roadmaster, also testified that the Bradford Township Municipal Building was ransacked. He said he didn’t initially realize there was damage to the back door, but once inside, he was greeted with a mess. He testified that both the secretary/treasurer’s office had been ransacked, as had the tax collector’s. Read testified that roughly $7.00 was missing from the petty cash, $750 was taken from the tax collector’s office, and damage to the building totaled about $3,800.
Read, like the other three men, also testified that a shoe print was left behind.
Defense attorney Joseph Ryan questioned all four men about the shoe print. With the exception of Read, the other three men testified they’re employees wore work shoes/steel-toed boots. Bainey and Powell indicated their businesses were not the kind that had a lot of consumer/pedestrian traffic. Conklin said that no one but he and his son are allowed into the garage area, which is where the shoe print was found at his business.
Read testified that he and his workers wore steel-toed shoes or hiking shoes, “Something with a more aggressive tread.” When asked about what the secretary and tax collector wore, he said probably girls’ shoes.
Both of those women, Christene Amon and Linda Wooster, testified they did not wear “water shoes” to work.
Tpr. Michael Taylor, who works with the state police electronic surveillance unit, testified that he received a court order to plant a tracking device on the vehicle operated by Ritchie. He said he and his partner went to the Pittsburgh International Airport, where Ritchie’s vehicle was slated to be, and after confirming it was the right vehicle, installed the mobile tracking device.
Taylor went on to explain that the tracking device worked through both GPS and a cellular connection. He stated it could be set to record motion as soon as the target moved, and set to send out daily reports. As well as other intricacies, he also said the device allows investigators to live-track the target.
Tpr. Mark Rohrbaugh of the state police criminal intelligence unit explained he was assigned to the tracking device. He said a multi-county was under way, and that Ritchie had developed as as suspect. He testified that on July 21, his supervisor informed him there was some activity on the tracker he needed to check out.
At this time, Rohrbaugh and Shaw went through footage of the tracked trip on a television in the courtroom. The trip began in Oil City, stopping by two Sheetz stores. Shaw, in opening statements, pointed out that Ritchie was captured on surveillance footage purchasing a flashlight and and non-slip gloves at one of the Sheetz stores. He also indicated there was a hand print from such a glove at one of the crime scenes.
Rohrbaugh walked the jury through the trip, which eventually snaked its way along a circuitous route before parking outside of Philipsburg on Geo Drive. The vehicle then remains stationary from 11:28 p.m. on July 20, 2011 to 2:04 a.m. on July 21. The tracking device showed the target vehicle taking another back and forth path before ending near TL Bainey at 2:43 a.m. The vehicle was stationary until 3:37 a.m., when it left. It again took a back-and-forth path, heading all the way in to Clearfield Borough, before winding up on Barrett Road at 4:07 a.m. It then left at 4:48 a.m.
Rohrbaugh said the vehicle made a few stops on state Route 879 northbound near the new bridge before heading back to an address chain that matched up with Ritchie’s residence on the GPS. Rohrbaugh said he and another trooper went to the two stops on SR 879, hoping to find evidence, but were unable to find any.
Under cross., Rohrbaugh admitted that he had no personal knowledge of the stops that would turn out to be Sheetz stops. He stated that information came from trailing investigators. He also indicated he had no firsthand knowledge of who was operating the vehicle, or who may have been inside of it.
The trial, scheduled for four days, picked back up again today at 9 a.m.
