‘PRIME SUSPECT’ IN FOOD CITY BURGLARY CHARGED WITH CAR THEFT, PROSECUTOR SAYS

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ST. ALBANS CITY: If what police say is true, less than 24 hours after being released from Northwest Correctional Center in St. Albans, Edward Lamson stole a car from Maple Street. The man is also “the prime suspect” in an early morning burglary at Food City, off Lake Street, according to Franklin County State’s Attorney Jim Hughes.

According to court documents obtained exclusively by the County Courier late on Thursday afternoon, the owner of the vehicle, John Howell, contacted police at about 7:52 am to report the vehicle stolen.

The 2018 Nissan Sentra, red in color, was later located by Police in Middlebury after following leads in the case, according to court documents.

St. Albans Police had been dealing with Lamson since he had been released on December 29th from Northwest Correctional Center. A Corrections worker gave Lamson a ride into the City, where officers had several encounters with him for loitering around local businesses.

“With the number of people I spoke with who had contact with Lamson on December 29th, 2020, and his apparent need to get out of St. Albans, and lack of ability to do so, I suspected Lanson could be involved with the theft,” wrote Officer Keith Cote of the St. Albans Police Department in the court filing. “Furthermore, the majority of dealings with Lamson were not far from 24 Maple Street,” he added.

24 Maple Street was where the Red Nissan had been parked the night before it came up missing, files show.

A disturbance call at Economic Services, in Middlebury, initiated contact with police there. They later ran Lamson’s information through a dispatching database to learn that Lamson was recently released from prison and had multiple run-ins with St. Albans Police the day prior.

By the time Police in Middlebury responded to Economic Services, Lamson had been rejected for help, and had left the area, but Police made the connection to the possibility that Lamson may be connected with the St. Albans car theft so they began searching the area for the vehicle.

Police came across a good Samaritan, later identified as Eugene Fox, who told officers they’d given a man who resembled Lamson a ride to Country Tire in Middlebury after he’d had a tire go flat. That’s where they found Lamson- in the process of having two flat tires repaired.

Fox described giving Lamson a ride at about 5:30 am after stopping to see if the man needed help. After calling for a wrecker, and agreeing to pay the repair bill for Lamson, Fox dropped him off at the repair facility, according to court records.

Fox also reported to Police that he gave Lamson $60 to get on his way.

During the encounter with Lamson, Fox allowed Lamson to use his cell phone to access Facebook. Police later looked back in the search history of the phone to determine whose Facebook account Lamson signed into. According to court records, the Facebook account accessed was “Dro-Split”, an alias police knew previously to be associated with Lamson.

Just before 5 pm, Middlebury officers located the vehicle at Country Tire, and began making arrangements for it to be returned to its rightful owner in St. Albans- that’s when Lamson came around the corner.

Police apprehended Lamson without incident, according to court records, he later spent the night at Chittenden County Correctional Center on $25,000 bail.

Franklin County State’s Attorney Jim Hughes said he expects the case against Lamson for burglary at Food City to be arraigned later next week.

During Lamson’s arraignment by video feed, Lamson pleaded not guilty to felony grand larceny and misdemeanor operation with the owner’s consent- together those charges could land Lamson behind bars for a dozen years.

Judge H. E. Van Benthuysen ordered Lamson to be held on $25,000 bail, with at least $2,500 being posted by Lamson as a deposit, records show. He was also ordered not to have contact with Joseph Brunell, the owner of the vehicle, to only be released into the custody of a responsible adult, and to abide by a 24 hour curfew.

Lamson has a significant criminal record, including prior convictions for burglary in Chittenden County.

Lamson is now being held back at Northwest Correctional Center in St. Albans, where he was released at 2:35 PM on Tuesday.