ST. GEORGE — A woman with an extensive criminal history of theft is in jail following an arrest in LaVerkin after she was identified through a job application she reportedly dropped off at the same store that police say she stole items from.
On Friday afternoon, officers responded to a retail theft reported at a grocery store in LaVerkin, according to charging documents filed with the court.
While speaking with the store staff, investigators learned there were two separate incidents involving the same suspect, who had taken multiple items from the store without paying for them — incidents that were captured on the store’s security footage that was later turned over to police.
Police say the suspect matched a recent applicant who had applied for a job at the store, Mariah Arlene McQueen, 25, who dropped off a job application during one of the theft-related incidents.
One of the officers recognized McQueen as a suspect caught on video during an unrelated theft investigation days earlier, the report states. When officers ran the suspect’s name through emergency dispatch, they learned McQueen had an active warrant for her arrest.
The suspect was then arrested and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility and was booked into jail.
On Monday, the case was filed by the Washington County Attorney’s Office and the defendant was formally charged with two third-degree felony counts of retail theft with qualifying felony theft within a 10-year period, an enhancement that resulted from the number of prior theft-related crimes and convictions.
One such case was filed in September of 2018, when officers responded to a report of a vehicle burglary in Hurricane involving several bank cards that were reportedly taken from the vehicle. The reporting party told officers that later, they found several transactions during a review of their bank records that revealed a number of purchases that were paid for with the bank cards taken during the incident.
Investigators also learned that one of the cards was used at an ATM machine located at the jail in Washington County, purportedly to put money on an inmate’s account, according to charging documents filed at the time of the 2018 arrest.
Officers then responded to the jail after learning that McQueen had been arrested hours earlier on an unrelated case, and during an interview, McQueen reportedly admitted to using the bank cards to make purchases at a number of retailers, including a transaction at the jail, but claimed that she had received the cards from a man named “Rick.”
All told, more than $500 was spent between the three financial cards reportedly taken during the car break-in, and due to the short period of time between the vehicle burglary and when the cards were used, officers suspected it was McQueen who had broken into the vehicle and then taken the cards.
She was later charged with two third-degree felony counts of unlawful acquisition of a financial card, along with one misdemeanor count each of unlawful use of a financial card and vehicle burglary. She completed the drug court program 18 months later and the charges were reduced to a misdemeanor.
In a second similar case also filed in September of that same year, McQueen was arrested on two felony unlawful acquisition of a financial card charges after she was identified as the one using the cards during a review of the store’s security footage. When asked, McQueen reportedly told officers that a friend had given the bank cards to her, and said she no longer had the cards after returning them to the friend.
She was transported and booked into jail on the two felony charges that were later reduced to a misdemeanor after she completed the drug court program in 2019.
In a case filed in July of 2018, McQueen was charged with theft by receiving stolen property and misdemeanor evidence tampering following an investigation into the theft of a $5,000 mountain bike that was stolen off the front porch of a residence in LaVerkin. The suspect was a co-defendant in the case who police say knew the bike was stolen, and helped to hide the bike on a family member’s property where it was later recovered by police. This case was also resolved in 2019 with a misdemeanor conviction through the drug court program.
Following the arrest Friday, McQueen was formally charged with the offenses and she is scheduled to make an initial appearance in 5th District Court in St. George on Friday and she remains in custody on $5,000 bail.
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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