ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / December 11, 1999

LAPLACE – A routine traffic stop by St. John Sheriff’s deputies has led tothe arrest of two adults and a juvenile and the end of a one-man crime wave that involved a rash of car burglaries going back to April 1999 and one carjacking.

Wendell Wilson, 19, 181 Joe Parquet Circle, LaPlace, has been charged with nine counts of burglary, one count of aggravated battery and one count of carjacking.

Travon Williams, 17, 188 E. 26th St., Reserve, is charged with threecounts of possession of stolen property, and a 15-year-old male of LaPlace is also charged with three counts of possession of stolen property.

According to police, on Dec. 6 deputies Byron Bernard and Mike Murdenspotted a car with a stolen license plate being driven by three males while patrolling Captain G. Bourgeois Street in LaPlace.After the 1984 Chevy Impala was stopped, a computer check indicated the car had been stolen out of Westwego.

All three occupants were taken into custody. and upon further inspectionit was discovered that a piece of stereo equipment in the car was taken from a vehicle burglary back in June.

The case was turned over to detectives Royal Burke and Eddie Cooper, and upon further questioning Wilson admitted to being responsible for four car burglaries this past weekend at an apartment complex on Cambridge Drive, four car burglaries at the Knights of Columbus Hall parking lot on Fir Street back in April, one car burglary outside a LaPlace business in October and a carjacking that took place Thanksgiving night at a car wash on Elm Street.

In the carjacking, Wilson allegedly hit the owner over the head with the a stick. The stolen vehicle, a 1993 Nissan pickup truck, was recoveredseveral days later in LaPlace.

St. John Sheriff’s detectives are continuing the investigation and areattempting to recover items such as credit cards, cell phones and a gun that were taken during the car burglaries.

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