WILLMAR -- A 26-year-old man made his first court appearance Tuesday on seven felony charges for allegedly stealing several vehicles and selling them to others who in turn sold the cars for their scrap value.
Marlon James Sands faces charges of theft, receiving stolen property and theft by swindle. Unconditional bail was set at $25,000. His next appearance is Jan. 30 in Kandiyohi County District Court.
According to the complaint, the investigation began on Oct. 28, when a Twin Cities resident re-ported to the Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office that so-meone had stolen two vehicles par-ked at his cabin residence in Spicer.
The vehicles, a 1995 Cadillac and a 1977 Lincoln, had been there a week before, the man told deputies. A neighbor reported that four men, with two pickups and car dolly-style trailers, had pulled the vehicles away from the residence and loaded them onto the trailers.
A few days later, a man reported to the Sheriff's Office that he suspected that he had bought a stolen vehicle from a man who went by the nickname of "Smoke." The man had purchased the car for $150 and then sold it for scrap metal to Litchfield Recycling.
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Another man reported he had purchased three vehicles, including the Cadillac and the Lincoln, from "Smoke." He had also sold the cars to Litchfield Recycling.
Using the state's stolen vehicle database, the deputy determined that all four had been reported stolen, with the other two missing from the Willmar area. Officials at Litchfield Recycling, who had all four vehicles, confirmed they did a large amount of business with the two men who had sold the vehicles and paid a total of $1,341.39.
One of the men identified "Smoke" as Sands, and a woman who had been involved in the transactions in a photo lineup. Residents of a Willmar apartment building where some of the transactions had taken place identified Sands and identified the woman as his girlfriend.
Sands has two prior convictions for first-degree burglary in Nobles County in 2009 and 2010.
