A Willow Springs resident has been charged with three counts of stealing a motor vehicle and one count of stealing $750 or more after investigation into a suspicious fire and the discovery of utility vehicles and a camper that had been reported stolen.
Brandon M. Murphy, 35, was arrested April 6 and is held on $100,000 bond, and entered a not guilty plea April 15 before Presiding 37th Circuit Judge Steve Privette. He scheduled to appear again before Privette on May 31 for trial setting and is represented by Public Defender Jack Paisley, court records show.
On April 1, deputies with the Howell County Sheriff's Department responded to a suspicious structure fire on County Road 3020 near Mtn. View and learned there was a heavily damaged side-by-side in the structure. Investigator Lt. Torey Thompson reported he further discovered Murphy and his girlfriend had been staying there without the property owner's permission, and Thompson said in court documents he knew Murphy had been arrested in the past in connection with stolen vehicles and was on parole for stealing, causing the investigator to suspect the burned UTV was stolen.
On April 5 the owner of the utility vehicle was identified and told deputies other ATVs and a 24-foot bumper pull camper had also been taken, and Thompson recalled Murphy's girlfriend had recently been arrested while inside a camper trailer. He and other deputies went to the location of the camper and confirmed it was the one stolen.
Witnesses at the second scene told deputies the woman had towed the camper to that location with her vehicle, and she told investigators it had been at the scene of the fire after she and Murphy were arrested near the second scene.
She also reportedly told deputies she'd told Murphy she needed a place to stay so she could get her kids back and he showed up with the camper, and she gave the location of the remaining ATVs, adding Murphy had traded them for a car.
Thompson reported he found a stolen Honda four-wheeler and three-wheeler. A witness said Murphy had traded them for a car, adding he suspected they had been stolen because Murphy didn't have titles for them.
The suspect allegedly admitted he traded "dope" for the four-wheeler, then traded it for a car.
Murphy's girlfriend reportedly told Thompson Murphy also set the structure fire, and the matter is under investigation.
Court records show Murphy pleaded guilty in 2019 to stealing $750 or more in Douglas County and was sentenced to six years, to run concurrently with four-year sentences on Texas County charges of stealing a vehicle and stealing more than $750 he pleaded guilty to the same year.
Howell County felony convictions include first-degree vehicle tampering in 2015 and 2016, stealing a vehicle in 2015, possession of a controlled substance and receiving stolen property in 2018, and stealing a vehicle, possession of a controlled substance, escape or attempted escape from confinement, and two counts of resisting arrest in 2019.
