Multiple charges were filed against ATM theft suspects
TEXARKANA, Ark. — Bail has been set at $150,000 for a juvenile and his 20-year-old co-defendant in connection with the attempted theft of cash from an ATM machine earlier this month.
Prosecutors in Miller County have charged Ryan Lynn Ross, 17, as an adult. Ross turned 17 the day after his arrest April 10 by Texarkana, Arkansas, police.
Ross and his co-defendant, Treveyon Dargin, 20, are facing multiple felony charges for allegedly breaking into a cash machine at a Red River Federal Credit Union branch in the 2300 block of Trinity Blvd. According to a probable cause affidavit prepared by police officer David Parker, investigators believe Ross and Dargin are part of an organized group from Houston that has targeted ATMs in the Texarkana area in the past.
Dargin and Ross were allegedly “embracing” each other when officers Michael Bryan and Zack Derrick found them hiding in a shed on residential property near the bank. Bryan was the first officer to arrive at the bank in response to an alarm.
When he arrived, he saw the ATM was in pieces and that two trucks, one blue and one white, were chained to the machine. Two suspects
were “hammering and prying” on a piece of the ATM and immediately fled when they saw police were on the scene.
Bryan began chasing the two suspects through the Woodline neighborhood and determined the area where they had to be hiding. When Derrick arrived, he and Bryan cleared two residential yards in the 5600 block of Ramblewood. The officers noticed a gate and fencing that appeared to have been damaged by someone running through it before observing a mask, a glove and several items of clothing on the ground in front of a garden shed.
The two suspects, Dargin and Ross, were found in the shed and taken into custody. As the officers walked back to their patrol cars, they recovered several loose $50 bills from the ground. The officers allegedly found more than $12,000 in $50 dollar bills in Dargin’s pants.
Both of the trucks at the scene were stolen from nearby neighborhoods and a third truck was reported damaged with a broken steering column the same morning which investigators believe is connected to the ATM theft.
The men have been charged with six felonies. The most serious, engaging in criminal gang activity, is punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison in the event of a conviction.
A charge of criminal mischief with damage over $25,000 and a charge of theft of property over $25,000 are punishable by five to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $15,000. Two counts of theft of property involving the stolen trucks are each punishable by three to 10 years and fines up to $10,000 and a charge of breaking or entering is punishable by up to six years and a fine up to $10,000.
Both Dargin and Ross are expected to appear before a Miller County circuit judge later this month.