Cory R. Wells makes his first appearance on a burglary case Tuesday in Lewis County Superior Court.
An Auburn man was charged Tuesday in Lewis County Superior Court for his alleged role in the October theft of a tractor and mowers from a Chehalis business and the transporting of the stolen items to Oregon.
Cory R. Wells, 33, was charged with second-degree burglary, theft of a motor vehicle and second-degree theft.
According to court documents, two other suspects have been charged in the case — Allen N. Zumwalt and Kenneth R. Jones.
The theft was reported on Oct. 27, 2018 at a business in the 100 block of Hamilton Road North in Chehalis. A person at the business reported that when he came to work that morning he noticed a locking gate had been forced open. The employee then noticed a John Deere Gator and several push mowers were missing.
The stolen items were valued together at more than $24,000.
Bonney Lake detectives recovered footage of Zumwalt with the stolen Gator at a storage facility in Oregon which had been rented to Jones, according to court documents. Wells allegedly admitted to driving a truck to a gas station near the Chehalis business where Zumwalt and Jones met him and transferred the trailer with the stolen items to Wells’ truck, and that he drove it to Oregon.
Superior Court Judge Andrew Toynbee ordered Wells held on $20,000 bail, the same amount as the warrant he was arrested on, citing his criminal history.
“He has two active warrants and no ties to this community,” Toynbee said.
