BUCKHANNON – A Buckhannon man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly stealing a utility terrain vehicle reportedly valued at $12,000.
Brandon Levi Wagoner, 21, was arrested on a charge of grand larceny, a felony, for allegedly taking a camouflage-colored Bennche 700 UTV side-by-side on Friday, May 24.
According to the criminal complaint in the Upshur County Magistrate Clerk’s office filed by investigating officer chief deputy Mike Kelley with the Upshur County Sheriff’s Department, Wagoner reportedly took the vehicle while it was parked “under an open-faced storage building” on Spruce Fork Road.
The side-by-side belongs to John M. McNemar and had not been recovered as of Wednesday, May 29.
The report states the charge is supported by a video of Wagoner confessing to taking the vehicle, which was filmed by Trooper J.S. Tonkin with the Buckhannon detachment of the West Virginia State Police and Cpl. Dewaine Linger with the Upshur County Sheriff’s Department.
“This is also supported by information given to John McNemar and Michael McNemar by an independent witness,” Kelley wrote in the report. He did not name the witness.
Magistrate Kay Hurst set bail at $50,000 cash or surety.
The penalty for a conviction of grand larceny is imprisonment in a state penitentiary for one to 10 years, or, in the discretion of the court, an alternative sentence of confinement in jail for up to one year and a fine of up to $2,500.
