ST. GEORGE — An Iron County man accused of stealing more than $2,000 in fireworks from a St. George grocery store on Monday was arrested and booked into jail on a felony theft charge.
Shortly before 9 p.m. on Monday, officers responded to a grocery store on East Mall Drive in St. George after receiving a report that a man was seen stealing fireworks, according to charging documents filed in 5th District Court.
Police say witnesses reported seeing a man load several cases of fireworks into a shopping cart from a large display inside the entryway of the store before pushing the cart to a white Kia Sorento.
After he opened the hatch, bystanders say they saw several cases of fireworks already in the rear of the car, the report states, adding that the man proceeded to unload the cases from the shopping cart and stack them on top of the others “very quickly.”
As he loaded the fireworks into the car, he was reportedly turning his head from side to side as if he were looking to see if anyone was watching him.
It was also noticed that the vehicle was missing the rear license plate. One of the witnesses followed the Kia to the car wash located nearby and reportedly watched as the man secured the license plate to the back of the vehicle.
In the meantime, one of the officers canvassing the area spotted the Kia heading north along Mall Drive and conducted a traffic stop. The suspect was identified as 52-year-old Jason Warrick Davenport of Cedar City.
Inside the vehicle officers say they found 20 cases of fireworks valued at $100 a case.
Davenport reportedly told officers he had just purchased the fireworks and said he had a receipt to prove he paid for the items. But shortly thereafter, police say he changed his statement and told the officers he could not provide the receipt since he had already thrown it away.
The store’s security footage showed Davenport entering the store wearing a different colored shirt than the one he was stopped in, which prompted the suspicion that Davenport changed his shirt prior to the encounter with police, the report states.
The footage also showed Davenport leaving the store without paying for the items.
In all, police say more than $2,100 in fireworks were taken during the incident and later recovered by police. Davenport was transported and booked into Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility facing third-degree felony theft. He also was placed on a probation hold that originated from a burglary reported in Iron County back in June 2021.
In that case, Davenport was identified as the suspect after two medical offices were broken into in Iron County, where a total of $1,400 went missing from the two businesses.
Surveillance footage captured images of a bald man wearing a hat and a “bright orange safety vest,” the officer noted in the report.
The following day, a third office was broken into and $180 was reportedly taken, which is when officers identified Davenport as the suspect, who also matched the suspect in the two previous burglaries.
During a search of the Davenport’s vehicle, officers recovered a safety vest that matched the one seen in the footage.
He was arrested and transported to jail in Grand County facing three first-degree felony counts of burglary — charges that were enhanced due to his criminal history that includes multiple convictions.
During a hearing held in September of the following year, he pleaded guilty to theft and burglary, each a third-degree felony, and was placed on three years’ probation and given credit for time served.
He was still on probation when he was arrested following Monday’s incident at the grocery store in St. George.
On Wednesday, the case was filed by the Washington County Attorney’s Office and Davenport was formally charged with third-degree felony count of retail theft. An initial appearance has been scheduled to take place Friday, and he remains in custody at the writing of this report.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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