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Suspect in marijuana heist charged in court

Man faces 4 felonies for invasion-style robbery

Formal charges were filed Friday against one of three individuals suspected of breaking into a home and stealing about 8 pounds of marijuana.

Michael Leonard Powell, 49, was charged with four felonies: robbery, impersonating a law enforcement officer and two counts of burglary. He faces up to 24 years in prison on the most serious charge.

Powell, along with two others – Lorne Heintze and Melissa Renee Garippo, 27 – are suspected of storming into a home about 3 a.m. May 17 to steal marijuana from a legal grow operation south of Durango on La Posta Road (County Road 213).

Upon entering the house, the trio yelled, “DEA, get on the ground,” according to an arrest affidavit filed in 6th Judicial District Court.

The two occupants tried to explain they oversee a legal grow operation and offered to show paperwork. But the masked intruders placed the occupants in handcuffs and covered their heads with pillowcases – tipping them off that this was not a law enforcement operation.

While the robbers were upstairs looking for marijuana, one of the occupants removed the pillowcase from her head and locked herself in a bathroom and called 911.

The robbers fled the scene with a large Rubbermaid tub full of marijuana.

But before leaving, Heintze accidently sprayed himself in the face with pepper spray, according to the affidavit. When La Plata County Sheriff’s Investigator Chad Mercer arrived and entered the house: “My throat was burning and I was constantly sneezing because pepper spray had been sprayed,” he wrote in an arrest affidavit.

The occupants said they suspected Heintze’s involvement because he is the nephew to one of the victim’s and he was inquiring about obtaining a large amount of the medicinal marijuana a day earlier.

Investigators tried for several days to talk to Heintze, but he dodged multiple requests to come in for an interview, according to the affidavit. They finally learned about his alleged and Powell’s and Garippo’s alleged involvement after obtaining a phone recording in which they made several references to the robbery.

Heintze and Garippo are scheduled to be formally charged next week.

shane@durangoherald.com

Jun 6, 2016
Three suspected in marijuana robbery arrested


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