ST. GEORGE — A suspect out of Central was arrested over the weekend after officers in Santa Clara learned through a series of plate and identification checks that both the vehicle and license plate were stolen during two separate incidents.
Shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday, an officer stopped a blue Toyota Camry for a license plate violation, and while speaking to the driver, 43-year-old Misty Dawn Langley, officers learned the suspect’s driver’s license was suspended and she was unable to provide both proof of registration and insurance.
While reviewing the vehicle information, officers ran a check on the license plate, which indicated it belonged on a blue Toyota SUV registered to another individual living in the area.
The officer noted in the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest that Langley told officers “she had taken the plate off of the 4-Runner and put it on this car so that she could drive it.”
A check of the vehicle identification number by emergency dispatch revealed the car was reported as stolen.
Langley was arrested, and the report alleges she admitted to the license plate offense and also to driving on a suspended license.
While en route to the jail, the officer learned that the owner of the SUV was at the scene to retrieve her license plate and reportedly told officers the plate had been removed without her knowledge or consent.
Langley was booked into jail facing one second-degree felony count of possession of a stolen vehicle, as well as a third-degree felony counterfeit license plate charge, which was enhanced due to the suspect’s criminal history that included multiple theft convictions, including a prior case involving a stolen vehicle.
That case was filed following an incident that took place on April 11, 2021, when officers responded to the Pilot Gas Station off Brigham Road on a report that a stolen vehicle located in the parking lot.
According to charging documents filed at the time, the owner of a 2018 Ford, said he had located the vehicle with two occupants inside, including the passenger, who was later identified as Langley.
Officers confirmed the vehicle was reported as stolen to the Santa Clara-Ivins Police Department, which also listed Langley and the driver as suspects in the case.
Langley, who was in the restroom of the gas station when officers arrived, was later arrested by police and booked into jail in Washington County facing felony vehicle theft, as well as other charges.
The felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor count of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, which Langley pleaded guilty to months later, and she was placed on probation.
In September, three months prior to the recent arrest, the defendant was released from jail into a residential treatment program on a misdemeanor retail theft case that was filed in March of this year.
Following the arrest on Sunday, the suspect remains in jail on $10,000 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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