RCSO: Stolen motorcycle leads to ATV theft; 5 charged

ROCKINGHAM — Five people are facing charges after investigators say one theft led to a revenge and ransom theft.

According to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, deputies received a call Thursday, June 20 from 34-year-old Robert Edward Smith Jr., of Cordova, who said he had been robbed at gunpoint in the game lands of Old Cheraw Highway.

Smith reportedly told deputies he had been called to meet with a woman at a boat landing — who was waiting for him with three men. Smith reportedly said that they forced him to go with them to their home, where they stole a four-wheeler he had on his truck.

According to the sheriff’s office, Smith showed deputies the home where he was taken, and deputies spoke to the residents — who told deputies that Smith had stolen a motorcycle from one of them and they confronted him about it.

They reportedly admitted taking the four-wheeler, telling Smith he could get it back when he returned to the motorcycle.

Smith reportedly told investigators where to find the stolen motorcycle.

Investigators arrested Smith and charged him with larceny of a motor vehicle, and served him with a warrant for obtaining property by false pretenses out of Anson County. He is being held on a combined $100,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court July 11 on the Richmond County charge.

The woman, 27-year-old Brittney Cheyenne Stutts, and the three men — 53-year-old Christopher Scott Stirk, 45-year-old James Tyson McLean and 71-year-old Larry Mitchell Cagle — were each charged with felony conspiracy, felonious restraint and larceny of a motor vehicle.

According to a press release, they were each jailed under a $10,000 secured bond, but jail records appear to show they have since been bailed out. They are also scheduled to appear in court July 11.

Online court records show Smith already has two other pending counts of larceny of a motor vehicle and one count of second-degree trespassing. McLean has a pending charge of assault on a female.

Records with the N.C. Department of Adult Correction show Smith was convicted in 2008 on a drug paraphernalia charge. His initial probation was revoked later that year, landing him behind bars for less than two months.

Cagle was convicted in 1995 of assault inflicting serious injury and receiving stolen goods.

McLean was previously convicted in 2017 on three counts of possessing stolen goods, and one count each of felony larceny and possession of drug paraphernalia. His probation on three of those charges was revoked the following year when he was convicted of obtaining property by false pretenses and possessing stolen goods.

Stutts was convicted in 2021 of felony larceny and her probation was revoked the following year.

Records show Stirk has two prior convictions: driving while impaired (1993; and one misdemeanor count each of possession of a Schedule IV controlled substance and maintaining a place for a controlled substance.

All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.