Police seek paint crew members in $54,000+ theft from Little Rock clothing stores

Suspects missed court date

Arrest warrants have been issued for three members of a four-man Texas paint crew accused of stealing more than $54,000 worth of clothing from JoS. A. Bank Clothiers while they were supposed to be renovating the two Little Rock stores.

A fifth defendant, a security guard from Benton who had been hired to watch the crew, has already been arrested. All five men are charged with Class B felony theft, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The three crew members -- all classified as fugitives from justice by court order of Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims -- are Rudolfo Campos-Juarez, 40, of Fort Worth; and Kyle Thomas Anderson, 22, and 23-year-old Ruben Flores, both residents of the Fort Worth suburb Watauga.

Sims has ordered the men held without bail after they are taken into custody, and they could face additional charges for missing court.

The fourth member, 32-year-old James Brewer of Fort Worth -- the crew foreman who has cooperated with detectives -- is the only one to have shown up to be arraigned. He was in court on Monday.

The guard, 47-year-old Jeffery Howard McClendon of Benton, was arrested about five weeks after the thefts. He is currently free on $10,000 bond.

The police probe began with a Sept. 9 complaint from manager Sandra Wilkie, 59, for the store at 12800 Chenal Parkway. She told investigators that she came into work that morning and saw too many empty shelves, according to a police report.

Wilkie told officer Jeffrey Frazier the store security video showed the paint crew who had been working the past two nights at the store, along with the security guard stationed to watch them, stealing clothes. More than $44,000 in merchandise was missing, the police report states.

Wilkie also gave Frazier a note she'd received from Brewer, the crew foreman, along with a cellphone video of the security guard showing the painting crew how to stop the store surveillance camera feed, the report said.

Wilkie said Brewer told her that'd he's already reported the thefts to his supervisors so she didn't need to get involved. Wilkie said she called police after discovering that the thefts hadn't been reported to JoS. A. Bank corporate management.

The next morning, Wilkie and Britany Braun, 29, from the JoS. A. Bank store at 203 N. University Ave., tracked the paint crew to the Hilton hotel at 925 S. University Ave., where they found Brewer's black 2014 Toyota Tundra pickup, according to a police report.

Police arrested the men in their hotel rooms. Officers collected a "large amount" of clothing after Brewer, who had rented the rooms, gave police permission to search. Brewer later turned over more stolen clothing to police.

The manager of the North University Avenue store, 55-year-old Delphi Oglesby, told police his staff was still checking but that so far they had $10,600 worth of clothes missing. The same paint crew and guard had worked overnight in his store on Sept. 6, he told officer Nicholas Kinsey.

Of the five defendants, McClendon, formerly of Hot Springs, is the only one who appears to have a criminal record. Charging papers show he has at least four felony convictions. Garland County Circuit Court records show he has a 1998 conviction for commercial burglary, a forgery conviction from 1991 and residential burglary convictions in 1990 and 1991.

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Metro on 07/21/2018

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