By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
A family that operates a salvage yard near Carthage walked away from a court hearing Thursday for the most part in the clear.
Associate Judge Richard Copeland threw out two counts of receiving stolen property against Robby J. Schrader, 30, and two counts of the same against his sister, Bobbi Jean Schrader, 31.
That left just younger brother Eddie Ray Schrader, 27, still on the hook for alleged stolen property and drugs that were seized in November when the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department served search warrants at Schrader’s Auto Salvage and another property.
Charges against the defendants’ mother, Dorothy Schrader, were dropped several weeks ago because of a lack of evidence.
Deputies insist there was no lack of stolen property recovered from the salvage yard and at two homes where they believe Eddie Schrader and Bobbi Jean Schrader live.
Authorities say they hauled away more than five loads of suspected stolen property on a 30-foot trailer. The property included motorcycles, lawn mowers, computers and television sets.
The problem was proving at a preliminary hearing Thursday in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin that the Schraders knowingly received and possessed the stolen items.
Assistant Prosecutor Jeremy Crowley focused the prosecution’s case on a television set and two laptop computers that were found inside a home at the salvage yard where investigators believe Eddie Schrader lives.
Crowley said a large, metal-cutting saw, a portable plasma cutter and a riding lawn mower were recovered from a shed behind the same home. Two motorcycles turned up in the salvage yard, and a Rug Doctor carpet shampooer was seized at a trailer home at 2175 W. Old Highway 66, where investigators believe Bobbi Jean Schrader lives.
Crowley called Detective Chris Carriger of the Sheriff’s Department to testify as to where the various items were discovered during the execution of search warrants, and to say that each had been confirmed as stolen between the years 2005 and 2008.
Carriger also testified that personal photographs and mail found inside the home at the salvage yard tied Eddie Schrader to the stolen property and to a little more than a pound of marijuana.
He told the court that Bobbi Jean Schrader was tied to the carpet shampooer at the trailer home by a Social Security statement in her name that was found there.
Defense attorney Phil Glades made a motion at the conclusion of the hearing for acquittal of all three of his clients, arguing that the prosecution had not established that any of them actually possessed the stolen property, let alone received it knowing that it was stolen. Glades said that even if “constructive possession” was granted, it is not sufficient to prove a charge of receiving stolen property.
“There is no cause for a person to have to stand for jury trial on this evidence,” Glades told the judge.
Crowley countered that the sheer volume of stolen property that was seized demonstrated knowledge on the part of the defendants.
Copeland decided that the prosecution had not offered sufficient evidence of Robby Schrader’s and Bobbi Jean Schrader’s possession of stolen items, and he dismissed their charges. The judge said he might be willing to order Eddie Schrader bound over for trial on four counts of receiving stolen property and a single count of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.
But the judge granted the defense a continuance of the hearing until next Thursday so that he can take under advisement case law that Glades raised in support of his argument.
Stolen property
A Jasper County sheriff’s investigator testified Thursday that a riding lawn mower recovered from a salvage yard near Carthage was stolen from the Race Brothers store. A recovered metal-cutting saw was stolen from the Avilla Fire Department, according to the testimony.
