More counts of felony theft added in burglary spree case

A 20-year-old Jackson man was in court on two of three separate cases that charge him and two co-defendants with a rash of burglaries in Jackson and Cape Girardeau that for months confounded law enforcement and dismayed victims.

William Artadi waived his right to two preliminary hearings in the two cases that include 16 felony burglary counts, one that claims that the victim was home at the time. Three additional counts of felony theft are included in the cases at hand Wednesday, part of legal proceedings made complicated by the large number of charges and staggered filing dates.

Associate Judge Gary Kamp bound Artadi over to Judge William Syler's higher court, mirroring what he did in August in the first case that was filed against Artadi. The initial case brings Artadi's total number of charges to 20, including one theft charge for allegedly stealing a firearm. Kamp set Artadi's case review before Syler on all three cases for 9 a.m. Monday.

Steve Wilson, Artadi's lawyer, did not immediately return phone calls Wednesday.

Artadi was in court on Wednesday in the orange clothes issued by the Cape Girardeau County Jail, with his mother watching the proceedings from the court gallery. Like fellow co-defendant Aaron Denson, 21, Artadi has been in custody since his arrest. The third defendant, 19-year-old Jacob Colyott, has been free for about two weeks on bond after spending 56 days in jail. Colyott is charged with one count of first-degree burglary and one count of second-degree burglary.

The probable cause statement on file for Artadi -- one identical to Denson's, prosecutors said Wednesday -- say that he was taken into custody on Aug. 1 and questioned. While members of Denson's family deny it, the statement -- signed by Lt. Rodney Barnes of the Jackson Police Department -- says that Denson reported that both Colyott and Artadi had been involved in some of the burglaries that took place in Jackson and Cape Girardeau.

During police questioning, the statement says, Artadi reported being involved in burglaries that took place in Jackson's Pioneer Orchard subdivision and neighborhoods around the Jackson Middle School while with Denson.

Court proceedings, and perhaps a jury, will determine the three defendants' guilt or innocence. But whoever is responsible for the spree that lasted from November to July stole whatever they came across -- laptop computers, guitars and money, for example.

Lt. David James of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department did not comment on this case or these defendants specifically, saying it's inappropriate since it's still in the court system. But he said that typical burglary charges are often fewer than the actual number that's committed.

"That's typically the way it is," James said. "Sometimes we can't link someone to all the ones they did or we don't have the evidence. But usually a defendant did more than he was charged with."

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