CRIME BEAT: Recent felony arrests

Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.

Todd Byars and Edward Janes – June 25
Todd Whitney Byars, 50, of Tallahassee, and Edward Jay Janes, 53, of Hiram, Ga., were arrested by Jefferson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO) Lt. Williams on Thursday, June 25 with charges related to theft and burglary.

According to the report issued by the JCSO, on Saturday, June 20, deputies responded to a 911 call referencing a current burglary that was taking place at a residence on North Jefferson Highway. The report states that when deputies arrived on scene, they made contact with the victim, who used to live at and still owned the residence.

The victim informed deputies that she had arrived at the residence and found two women removing items from within the home. One of the two women spoke with the victim, stating that they had been hired by a man named Todd Byars, as he had asked them to go in and clean all the items out of the house. Byars told the two women that he owned the property and needed everything removed.

When realizing that the home did not belong to Byars (as he had claimed), the two women put everything back into the house and left an apologetic $40 on the victim's vehicle before leaving the residence.

Several days later, on Thursday, June 25, Deputy Johnson was patrolling near the Jefferson County Kennel Club, when it was noticed that there was a silver colored SUV parked near the club. Upon further investigation, Deputy Johnson observed two men inside the empty building. The two men were near the ticket booth area and appeared to have entered through a broken door at the center.

The two men were ordered to leave the building, but Deputy Johnson watched them quickly flee into another door. At that point, Deputy Johnson requested another responding unit to arrange a perimeter, and the men were given another verbal warning to leave the building and come forward.
A short time later, the two men walked out a door that was further down the hall and left the kennel club building through a broken door. Both subjects were approached by law enforcement and identified as Byars and Janes.

When questioned, both men said that they had heard Deputy Johnson tell them to leave, but that they hadn't seen any law enforcement officers, which is why they hadn't left the building. Byars and Janes both stated that they knew they were trespassing, but they were just taking photos of the interior.

However, Byars also informed deputies that he had left a backpack inside the structure, and once deputies located it, they noticed it contained several tools related to burglary. Byars stated that he used the tools for opening locked doors.

Both Byars and Janes agreed to ride with Deputy Johnson to the sheriff's office for a further interview.

At the JCSO, deputies questioned Byars about his involvement with the earlier situation at the residence, which was only a short distance from where the kennel club was located on North Jefferson Highway. Byars confirmed that he was involved in that situation, as he had told the women to remove items from the house.

But Byars added that he did not feel as though he was wrong to take items that did not belong to him out of a home that he did not own. According to Byars, he did not believe it to be wrong to take items if they were just going to sit in an empty house “and rot.” Byars also admitted that he had taken a security camera from within the kennel club.

With Byars' confession, deputies found it clear that he had conspired to commit burglary or theft. Byars was arrested on the charges of conspiring to commit burglary, conspiring to commit petty theft, unarmed burglary to structure and grand theft.

Janes was arrested on the charges of burglary and possession of burglary tools.

Justin Mabry – July 5
Justin Scott Mabry, 34, of Monticello, was arrested on Sunday, July 5 for committing a criminal mischief and trespassing.
According to Mabry's arrest report, on July 5 at around 9 a.m., JCSO's Cpl. Adamczyk was dispatched to North Jefferson Highway after the 911 Communications Center had received a report of criminal mischief.

When Cpl. Adamczyk and Deputy Krajewski arrived at the scene, they made contact with the victim, who stated that Justin Mabry had arrived at her residence and damaged the glass french doors inside her home.

According to the victim, she had opened her front door in order to feed the cats that live outside her home when she observed Mabry (who the victim already knew and had a history with) sitting on a bench near her porch. The victim said that when she saw Mabry, he seemed to be very upset and he requested that she give him breakfast. The victim stated that she was afraid to refuse Mabry's request, as he had been very aggressive towards her in the past and she knew he had a criminal history.

So the victim invited Mabry inside her home so that she could boil him an egg for breakfast. She said that she had told Mabry to “calm down” so that she could fix him something to eat.

While she was cooking for him, Mabry requested that the victim also give him money so that he could go purchase medical marijuana in Tallahassee. When the victim told him that she had no money to give him, Mabry insisted that he needed money, since someone had – according to Mabry – stolen his stash of medical marijuana from his car.

At this point, Mabry's arrest report has redacted information, but it goes on to state that Mabry eventually began to kick the victim's glass french door and eventually punched a pane out of the door. Mabry informed the victim that if the glass cut him or ruined his shoes, she “would be sorry.”

The victim asked Mabry to leave her home, but Mabry slammed the french door closed with enough force that more glass was broken. He then exited through another door and left the scene on foot.

The deputies learned that Mabry might be staying at the Capri Motel, as he had taken a room key from another individual, although he reportedly did not sign any paperwork or pay any money to rent a room. The owner of the hotel stated that she had not given Mabry permission to stay there, and that he had obtained access to the room illegally.

Deputies asked the motel owner to contact the sheriff's office if Mabry returned to the hotel.

Later in the day, 911 dispatch received a report that Mabry was back at the hotel and was currently in the room he had illegally procured. Cpl. Adamczyk visted the motel and located Mabry, who stated that he did not want to speak with law enforcement; Mabry cracked his room's door open only enough so that his voice could be heard, but not enough to face deputies.

Mabry was ordered to open the door and step outside of his residence so that the two men could speak, but Mabry refused, saying that they could speak just fine through the door.

Cpl. Adamczyk continued to demand Mabry step outside, as the talking-through-the-door situation was unsafe for law enforcement officers. Cpl. Adamczyk also informed Mabry that if he did not open the door, he was impeding a law enforcement investigation. When Mabry continued to refuse to cooperate, deputies had to force the door open, enter the room and place Mabry in handcuffs.

When Mabry was questioned about visiting the victim's house, he said he “didn't think” he had been there. Mabry stated that he had been in Thomasville, Ga., instead. When asked about the broken french door, Mabry insisted he didn't know what the deputies were talking about.
When Cpl. Adamczyk continued to ask questions about Mabry being over at the victim's home and breaking the door, Mabry stated that he hadn't ever gone over to the residence, but that he did visit sometimes to ask for money for medical marijuana.

Cpl. Adamczyk asked, then, how the door had been broken with enough force to send glass over the room, and Mabry stated that he didn't know, but “slamming the doors that hard would not have broken the glass like that.” The report states that Cpl. Adamczyk had not mentioned the slamming of doors until that point.

When Cpl. Adamczyk told Mabry that he had never mentioned the doors being slammed as a cause of being broken, Mabry paused and then stated that he didn't know what Cpl. Adamczyk was talking about. He continued to deny any involvement in the situation.

At that point, Mabry was placed under arrest for felony criminal mischief and trespassing after warning. He was turned over to the Jefferson County Jail, where he was eventually booked.