Las Cruces Police arrested four Florida teenagers in a Jeep that had been reported stolen from a hotel parking garage in the Sunshine State.
Stephen Lee Freeland, 18, and 15-year-olds Allie Marie Davis, Leeann Summer Lawson and Cameron O’Shea are charged with one count each of possession of a stolen vehicle and conspiracy. Davis, Lawson and O’Shea had been reported as runaways from Florida.
Shortly before 12:30 a.m. Thursday a Las Cruces Police officer conducted a traffic stop on a white 2005 Jeep with Virginia plates that was driving northbound, without headlights, on Valley Drive. The officer quickly learned that the Jeep had been reported stolen from Destin, Fla.
Freeland was driving the Jeep at the time of the traffic stop but officer learned that Davis and Lawson also took turns behind the wheel during their drive from Florida. The vehicle had body damage to its passenger-side front bumper and wheel well, and detectives learned that the teens were involved in a hit-and-run crash. Detectives were told that Davis was driving the Jeep somewhere in Texas at the time of the crash.
Detectives learned that Davis stole keys to the Jeep from a woman’s locker room at the Emerald Grande hotel in Destin, Fla. Davis, Freeland and Lawson first burglarized the jeep and then stole it. They stopped to pick up O’Shea before leaving Florida en route to California.
Freeland is being held at the Dona Ana County Detention Center with bond set at $5,000. Davis, Lawson and O’Shea are being held in the juvenile wing of the detention center.