STEUBENVILLE - A Mingo Junction man arrested last week in connection with the theft of telephone wire admitted Tuesday that he violated his probation in a previous case involving another theft of telephone wire.
James A. Roe, 29, of 415 Logan Ave., Mingo Junction, was sentenced in April 2011 to six months in the Eastern Ohio Correction Center after pleading guilty to theft. Roe was charged with taking about 1,000 feet of telephone cable in the Stratton area in November 2009. He also was placed on 18 months of probation.
A state parole officer on March 21 met with Roe about a drug screening. Roe admitted to the parole officer that he would test positive for cocaine and morphine use. The parole officer tried to put him in a vehicle to take a drug test but Roe ran away, according to court documents. An arrest warrant then was issued for Roe.
Roe was arrested by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department on April 12 at a house on El Villa Way. Also arrested was Vernon J. Jackson, 28, of 246 Lincoln Ave., Mingo Junction. Both men were suspects in a recent rash of telephone wire thefts in the Steubenville-Mingo Junction area.
Jackson was released a day later, but Roe remained in the county jail on the probation violation.
Jackson was arrested again last week after the sheriff's department obtained more evidence in the case.
Both were charged with complicity to theft and disrupting public service.
Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge David Henderson said Roe's sentencing on the probation violation will be held in a couple weeks.
Roe and Jackson are scheduled to appear Monday in Wintersville county court for a preliminary hearing on the recent wire thefts.
Jackson also has a prior conviction for stealing telephone wire. He was sentenced to one year in prison in 2008 after pleading guilty to taking wire from the Montwell Drive, Mingo Junction, area.
