A 38-year-old homeless man who promised a judge he would ‘rob again’ if not allowed to stay in jail at a Marion County Court hearing last Friday has lived up to his threat.
Salem Police arrested Mitchell Finley Monday night after he allegedly left the Moto Mart in Salem without paying for a bag of beef jerky. On his way out of the store, Finley reportedly told the clerk to ‘call the cops’.
Finley was arrested a short time later for retail theft and criminal trespass, as he had been barred from the business earlier.
The Marion County State’s Attorney’s office is also filing a petition to revoke Finley’s pre-trial release on charges related to two burglaries that were charged in separate incidents on Friday. Finley had been arrested by Marion County Sheriff’s Deputies while inside the Crossroads Church on Walnut Hill Road southeast of Centralia early Christmas morning. After being released on a notice to appear, Finley was arrested again on Christmas night after going to the Wamac Police Station, where he admitted to breaking into the Kaskaskia Workshop in the Centralia Industrial Park.
State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth says under the Safety Act, Judge Mark Kelley could not hold Finley even with his threats to ‘rob again’ because burglary is not one of the crimes where a person can be held pending further court action.
