Clear Lake police make three arrests in connection with stolen truck; find loaded handgun

From Clear Lake Police Department –

CLEAR LAKE – Yesterday, August 22, 2012 Clear Lake police officers responded to a local Clear Lake motel on an anonymous tip that two men staying in a room at the motel had arrived in a truck stolen out of Missouri. When officers got to the motel they found a truck with Missouri plates. Contact was made with two men and two women from the Tulsa Oklahoma area that were staying at the motel. Initially all of the subjects denied any connection with the truck. Further investigation convinced officers that these four were the individuals that had driven the truck into the motel. Officers arrested the two men for ‘2nd degree Theft/Possession of Stolen Property’, a class D felony. A quick check of the truck revealed a loaded semi-automatic handgun in the cab.

30 year old Ramond Manley Thompson Jr. was also charged with ‘Possession of a Firearm by a Felon’ a class D felony. The second man, 26 year old Demarco Darnell Gardner was also charged with ‘Interference With Official Acts’ a simple misdemeanor for giving officers a false name when first questioned. Both men were taken to the Cerro Gordo County Jail where bail was set at $10,000 on Thompson and $5,000 on Gardner.

The two women accompanying the two men were brought to the Clear Lake Police Department where they gave statements. In the course of the investigation, Clear Lake officers contacted the Tulsa, Oklahoma Police Department and found that there was a warrant for the arrest of Gardner for ‘Failure to Appear’ on a previous charge of ‘Cultivating Marijuana’. He is being held without bond for extradition by Oklahoma officials. Clear Lake officers also learned from the Tulsa Police Department that there was an active warrant on one of the two women, identified as 21 year old Krista Marie Pendleton, for ‘Failure to Appear’ on a previous charge of ‘Grand Larceny’. The bond on that charge was $25,000. Tulsa officials indicated that they would extradite her also. Pendleton had left the police department before officers learned of the warrant. She was apprehended today, August 23, 2012 when she returned to the Clear Lake Police Department to retrieve some personal belongings from the truck. She was arrested and taken to the Cerro Gordo County Jail.

The other woman was determined not to have been involved in criminal activity and left the police department with her father after giving her statement.