Warsaw Woman Sentenced For Burglary
By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — A Warsaw woman has been sentenced to six years for burglary.
Debra L. Lackey, 40, was sentenced for the Level 4 felony on Monday, March 7, in Kosciusko Superior Court 1.
According to a probable cause affidavit, on April 30, 2021, a Warsaw Police officer was dispatched to a burglary in progress.
Someone told the officer a woman was seen breaking a window at a home and letting herself and two others inside. The officer also learned that the three suspects had arrived there in a green truck.
Police saw the truck at the home and the broken window. Officers talked with the three people: Lackey, Joshua Miller and Sharon Jackson.
Lackey told the officers she used to live at the home and was there to get paperwork. She added the home’s current resident had said she could be there.
Officers searched the three and found three remotes for a TV at the residence in Miller’s pockets. Officers also spoke with the home’s current resident who said he didn’t give three permission to go into his house.
The three were then arrested.
The Warsaw Police officer spoke with Lackey who again said she had permission to be there. She said her cellphone was inside her bag in the truck.
She allowed officers to get her bag out of the truck. When the Warsaw Police officer entered the truck, they immediately smelled marijuana coming from it. The officer saw three backpacks in the truck.
They picked up one backpack and saw a plastic bag containing marijuana under it. All of the backpacks were taken out of the vehicle.
Lackey claimed one of the backpacks was hers. Jackson said the backpack with the marijuana underneath it was hers. She also said the marijuana was hers.
Jackson said she was the one who first broke into the home. She used a grill fork to do it, then let Lackey and Miller in.
Miller told police Lackey told him to grab the remotes and put them in his pocket. He said Lackey also told him to grab tools and food, which he was doing when officers arrived.
Officers checked two of the backpacks and didn’t find anything illegal. Inside the third backpack, which no one claimed, officers found 10 hypodermic syringes. Some of the syringes contained heroin residue.
At the sentencing Monday, Defense Attorney Austin Rovenstine said Lackey had taken responsibility for what she had done. He noted the fact that Lackey has some dependent children.
Kosciusko Superior Court 1 Judge Karin McGrath said she considered that Lackey’s having dependent children was a mitigating factor. She also noted the aggravating factor that Lackey “has a history of criminal and delinquent behavior.”
She sentenced Lackey to six years with three executed and the rest to be served through probation. She said Lackey could serve the executed portion of her sentence through Kosciusko County Work Release or Kosciusko County Community Corrections.
She also gave Lackey 84 days of jail time credit. Lackey also must pay the resident of the home the three broke into restitution of $344.30.
Miller and Jackson have yet to be sentenced in the case.