Two Salt Lake County men made their initial appearances in 3rd District Court this week after they were allegedly in possession of stolen items including a motorcycle, all-terrain vehicle and wire.
Benjamin Shawn Marqu Gober, 47, of West Valley City, and Richard Dickerson, 44, of Magna, are both charged with second-degree felony receive or transfer a stolen vehicle, two counts of third-degree felony theft by receiving stolen property and one misdemeanor count of theft by receiving stolen property. Gober is also charged with an additional count of third-degree felony theft by receiving stolen property.
Tooele County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to North Erickson Road on Jan. 17 on reports of a possible structure fire, according to a probable cause statement. When deputies arrived, they found two men, later identified as Gober and Dickerson, who were burning wire in the backyard of a home.
During the investigation, deputies learned the wire had been stolen from a business the same morning, the statement said. The wire was also in the back of a truck and trailer parked in front of the house.
Gober and Dickerson were transported to the Tooele County Sheriff’s Office for further questioning, according to the statement. When interviewed, the suspects told detectives they had over 200 pounds of wire, which was stolen from a business north of Interstate 80 and state Route 201, they intended to scrap.
Detectives were able to compare the suspects’ footprints with those found at the scene of the theft and they matched, the probable cause statement said. The two suspects said they were still wearing the same clothes as when they took the wire.
Deputies also discovered the men were using a skid steer stolen from Stansbury Park on the Erickson Road property, the statement said. A stolen dump trailer from Magna, a yellow motorcycle from Salt Lake County and an ATV from West Valley City were found on the property as well.
Dickerson’s initial appearance in 3rd District Court before Judge Matthew Bates was delayed until Tuesday after he was held in custody under a different name.
Gober was assigned a public defender and his bail was set at $10,000 during his initial appearance Monday morning. He was scheduled to return to court for a scheduling conference on Tuesday at 9 a.m. before Bates.