A Bladenboro man received a suspended sentence and placed on 24 months supervised probation Monday in Bladen County Superior Court for his role in the theft of ATVs in the Bladenboro area under an agreement with the state.
Dillon Alexander Freeman, 20, also was ordered to submit to a drug assessment test and credited with time already served in Bladen County Jail.
Freeman will go to a sober-living community in Asheville for treatment, then return to Bladen County, according to his lawyer, Rob Davis.
“He has a substance abuse problem,” Davis told the court. “His drug problem is the basis for all of this, and he admits it.”
Freeman was part of an investigation of a larceny ring that covered Bladen, Columbus and Robeson counties, according to the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff James A. McVicker said in March that more than $20,000 in stolen property from Bladen County had been recovered, and more than $10,000 from the other jurisdictons. “We recovered four wheelers, tools, lawn mowers, trailers, and other property,” McVicker said. “These individuals were targeting barns, sheds and outbuildings and most of their thefts occurred during daylight hours when homeowners were away.”
Freeman plead guilty to the theft of a four-wheeler valued at $5,000 from a home on Berry Lewis Road in August 2015. Freeman sold the vehicle for $500 to a man in Pembroke, according to a court summary.
In January, a woman who lives on Zion Hill Church Road noticed her ATV valued at $5,000 was missing. Freeman and Jerry Paul Britt Jr. had taken the vehicle and sold it for $1,600, according to a court summary.
Britt and Tristan McRae Singletary plead guilty earlier this month for their part in the ring. Britt He was sentenced to a minimum of six months and a maximum of 17 months in state custody. Singletary was sentenced to a minimum of 16 months and a maximum of 38 months.
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