By GLEN WERLING
A Marion woman has been sentenced in Wells Superior Court after she pleaded guilty to a bizarre theft in Bluffton last December.
Brook Leann Jupin, 45, pleaded guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia with a prior conviction for the same offense, a Class A misdemeanor; theft wherein the value of the property alleged stolen is greater than $750 but less than $50,000, a Level 6 felony; and failure to appear in court, a Level 6 felony.
She was sentenced to 150 days in the Wells County Jail on the drug paraphernalia case, and two years in prison, all suspended, on each of the Level 6 felonies.
Jupin was credited for 130 days spent in confinement awaiting disposition of her case in the drug paraphernalia case.
She was ordered to serve two years of probation on the theft charge and one day of probation on the failure to appear charge.
Judge Andrew Antrim assessed a total of $555 in court costs and ordered Jupin to pay probation fees. She was also ordered to submit a DNA sample.
It was in the pre-dawn darkness on a very foggy Dec. 10 morning when Bluffton police received a report from a Bluffton resident that he was waiting at the end of Terrace Drive, where he lives, to make a turn onto Ind. 116 on his way to work. As he was waiting to make the turn, he reported witnessing a pickup truck exit the driveway of a nearby out building he owned, towing a 2018 SureTrak trailer that he owned that was loaded with firewood.
As the truck and trailer passed him, he followed it. The driver of the 1997 Chevrolet pickup truck apparently realized she was being followed as she stopped the pickup truck and got out of the driver’s seat. When the trailer’s owner confronted her and asked her whose trailer she was taking, she reportedly claimed the trailer belonged to her father.
The trailer owner knew she was not his daughter and when he confronted her with his knowledge that they were not related, she reportedly hastily unhooked the trailer and left it behind speeding away eastbound on Dustman Road.
The trailer’s owner followed her to the Bellbrook housing addition where the 1997 Chevrolet made an abrupt left turn into the addition.
The woman apparently was unfamiliar with the housing addition as it has no through streets and she abandoned the pickup truck in the addition — leaving behind her male passenger in the process. A short time later, she reportedly showed up at nearby Hope Missionary Church seeking help. She claimed that her vehicle had broken down. Hope staff members were aware of the traffic stop nearby and called police, but Jupin apparently realizing that law enforcement was already nearby and on its way, ran out of the church.
She managed to elude the multiple law enforcement officers who arrived at the scene, aided by the dense fog that was limiting visibility to just a few hundred feet.
The man Jupin left behind was Willie Frank Love, 59, Marion. He is also awaiting trial on one count of theft, a Level 6 felony. He had a pre-trial conference set in his case for May 26, but allegedly didn’t show up for the hearing. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
The officers were able to identify Jupin as the woman who fled because Love told them who she was. Love told police he had known Jupin for five years. A check of criminal records by a sheriff’s deputy investigating the case showed that Jupin, alias Brook Barnum, alias Brook Bridenthal, had a history of theft convictions.
Love also reportedly told investigators that, at the time of the investigation, Jupin was addicted to methamphetamine.
Love also reportedly said that Jupin was supposed to be taking him to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne when she told Love she wanted to make a side trip to Bluffton in order to go to the “meat locker.”
The pickup truck had 17 treated fence posts in its bed that were all brand new and that investigators believe Jupin may have stolen from the nearby Bluffton Family Farm and Home store. Upon questioning the manager of the store, it was determined that the store was actually missing from its inventory 29 large treated fence posts and 56 smaller treated posts.
Love reportedly told deputies that everything in the bed of the pickup truck was his.
A warrant was issued for Jupin’s arrest and that warrant was served by a Marion police officer March 15. At that time, Jupin was also facing charges in Grant County for drug possession. When she was transferred to the custody of a Wells County Sheriff’s deputy at the intersection of Ind. 3 and Ind. 18 a Wells County Sheriff’s deputy who was taking custody of Jupin wrote in his report that he asked her if she had anything in her possession that she wished to declare before she was booked into the Wells County Jail on the theft warrant. Jupin told the deputy she had nothing to declare.
Upon arrival at the jail, the deputy again asked Jupin if there was anything illegal in her possession that she wished to declare. She reportedly denied that she had anything illegal on her.
During the book-in process, she was required to shower and change into jail issued clothing. A female jailer was keeping an eye on Jupin to make sure she didn’t withdraw anything from her body cavities. The jailer noticed that Jupin appeared to be making strange movements.
Jupin was ordered to pass through the jail’s body scanner again and in the process the scanner revealed that Jupin was hiding something in her vagina. That something reportedly turned out to be a glass smoking pipe typically used to ingest illegal substances.
That resulted in the filing of the paraphernalia possession charge.
glenw@news-banner.com
