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Carbondale vandals given ‘deferred’ sentence by judge

John Colson
jcolson@postindependent.com

CARBONDALE — A group of young adults, including one 16 years old, have the next six months to think about why they decided one night to pelt cars and homes in the Crystal Village portion of Carbondale with ketchup, eggs, flour, mustard and other food items, according to the Carbondale police.

Tanner Hawkins, Oscar Eorres-Gonzales, both 18, and Johnny Wadsworth, 20, are all on a kind of probation, and under orders by municipal judge John Collins to stay out of trouble for six months or face the consequences.

A fourth suspect, 16, also faced the judge over the incident, but because he is a minor the records are sealed.



Michael Zimmerman, the department’s school resource officer and one of those involved in the case, confirmed Monday that the four suspects were arrested earlier this month on charges of vandalism and destruction of private property.

According to police, the vandalism took place on Oct. 9 at about 9:45 p.m., along Crystal Drive, Barber Drive and Oak Run Drive in the subdivision, located at the western edge of town adjacent to the Crystal River.



Zimmerman said the incidents involved 33 cars and three houses in the neighborhood, and that the call to police came in from an alert resident who had seen one car driving slowly down the block without incident, but was alarmed when a second car did the same thing and the occupants seemed to be throwing things out of the windows.

The neighbor took down the license plate number of the car and called police, Zimmerman said.

The police soon rounded up the car and “everybody inside quickly confessed,” Zimmerman reported.

Although the incident involved some minor damage to the vehicles and the houses, Zimmerman said, the perpetrators have not yet been assessed any restitution payments, since the thrown foodstuffs were relatively easy to clean off.

But, Zimmerman said, the four suspects will have to appear before the judge again once their probationary-type period has ended, If they have stayed out of trouble in the interim, the officer said, it is likely the judge will close the case without further punishment.


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