Friday, October 15, 2010


On 10/14/2010 the Prentiss County Sheriff's office received the report of a suspicious person and vehicle at a vacant residence on HWY 370 West of Frankstown. Deputies and Investigators responded to the call and caught the following individual in the process of burglarizing the vacant residence. The suspect had loaded some of the contents of the residence into his automobile. The suspect is identified as Paul Franklin Besinger 46 of Hickory Flat. The suspect works in Booneville and lives in Hickory Flat and was burglarizing the residence on the way home after work. His bond was set at $5,000.. I can't emphasis enough how important it is for neighbors to watch out for neighbors, but this is a prime example of the public assisting Law Enforcement and hopefully by catching such suspects, may very well prevent our homes from being burglarized. Ours guys did a great job responding and catching him in the act but it would like not have happened without an alert neighbor who was willing to get involved.

Sheriff Randy M Tolar

Wednesday, October 13, 2010


On Oct 1, 2010 Prentiss County Deputies arrested Jimmy Green Tucker 33 of 37 CR 2291 Booneville and charged him with Burglary and Larceny. The charges stem from burglaries that occurred back on Friday 02/19/2010 and Sunday morning 02/21/2010 in the Cairo community. Tucker had been suspect in the burglaries along with a couple of our people. During the investigation we recovered some of the loot along with key pieces of evidence that we submitted to the Mississippi Crime Lab. The case hinged on the results of the examination of the evidence. We we ultimately got the results from the crime lab, and were able to eliminate the other two suspects and positively conclude that it was Tucker. This is the first case in which we used DNA evidence to solve a case of this nature rather than a case involving a death or sexual related crime. Previously when we had evidence involving DNA we had to submit that evidence to a private lab for analysis and one sample might cost thousands of dollars for a comparison. The reason being is that up until the last couple years our State Crime Lab didn't have the capability to do such tests. We are very fortunate now that the Lab does have the technicians and means to retrieve, test and match DNA samples at very little cost to an Agency. It will make a great impact on Law Enforcement Investigations in Mississippi.
Tucker had been arrested last year on drug charges and was sentenced to Drug Court. He will be revoked from the program and face that penalty along with the present charges. He remains in custody at this time. This is no reflection on the Drug Court. Our Drug Court has had a tremendous impact in reducing the number of those that Repeat Offend. This is just one of a very few that has not successfully complied with the conditions of supervision of Drug Court. Our Investigators and Deputies did an outstanding job in these cases.

Sheriff Randy M Tolar





































On 09/03/2010 Friday a burglary was reported to the Prentiss County Sheriff's Office of a building in the Wheeler Community. The suspects mad off with approx. $34,000 worth of loot. The subsequent investigation by Prentiss County Investigators over the course of the entire month of Sept. lead to the arrests of four individuals. Robert "Bob" C Lewellen 49 of 575 CR 5011 Booneville, Jamie Ray Lewellen 31 of 575 CR 5011 Booneville, James 'JD' Dean Wilson 20 of 257 HWY 4 East Booneville and Karly Dawn Clark 17 of 214 CR 4141 New Site. Bob Lewellen is charged with Burglary and Conspiracy to Commit Burglary. The remaining three are charged with Burglary. All four have been released on Bond at this time. This was a lengthy Investigation that took much resource to make our case. A substantial portion of the loot was recovered. I am very thankful for everyone's efforts and hard work. Anyone having information concerning this case or the possible recovery of additional property, please contact the Prentiss County Sheriff's Office or Crime Stoppers of Northeast Mississippi.





























On Weds 09/02/2010, Prentiss County Narcotics Investigators, Deputies, Booneville Narcotics Officers in cooperation with North Mississippi Narcotics executed a search warrant and arrested Benjamin Clark Yates age 43 of 13 CR 8541 Booneville, after discovering that the suspect was in possession of Dilaudid (Hydromorphone) and Precursors needed to manufacture Methamphetamine. He was charged with Possession of Controlled Substance and Possession of Precursors with the intent to Manufacture Methamphetamine. He is awaiting an initial appearance before a Judge before bond is set.

In the early morning hours of 09/01/2010 Prentiss County Narcotics Investigators, Deputies, Booneville Narcotics and North Mississippi Narcotics executed a search warrant at 49 CR 7149 Booneville and arrested Rick Joseph Lawson age 38 and Amanda Crystal Lucio-Parker age 28 both of 49 CR 7149 and charged them with Manufacturing a Controlled Substance (Methamphetamine) after Officers discovered the makings of a Meth Lab. Both are awaiting an initial appearance for bond to be set.

These arrests and searches stem from Prentiss County Narcotics continuing Investigations into the illegal manufacturing of methampetamine and Sale and Possession of Prescription Drugs.