Kansas trio plead not guilty to marina thefts

Three men from Kansas charged with stealing thousands of dollars in fishing equipment and other items from boats at three Lake Norfork marinas have entered not guilty pleas to the charges.
Two nineteen-year-olds, Dane Phillip Christensen of Lenexa and Michael Sabin from Gardner and 20-year-old Lukas Trey Helm of Olathe, were all arrested in connection with the thefts.

The out-of-state-men are facing eight counts of breaking or entering, five counts of felony theft of property, one misdemeanor count of theft of property and four counts of criminal trespass.

Helm and Christensen turned themselves in on August 11 followed by Sabin a day later.

A $15,000 Bond was posted by each of the three men on the day of their arrest and they were released.

Investigators say items were taken from boats docked at Cranfield Marina, Lake Norfork Marina and Panther Bay Marina.

The men are accused of taking GPS devices, fishing poles, tackle boxes, lures and other fishing and boating gear.

Beginning on July 12, reports began coming into the Baxter County Sheriff’s office of the theft from boats at the marinas.

Surveillance camera video from the three docks showed the men involved in the break-ins as they scaled locked entry way doors and made their way along the marina walkways.

They were reported to have come onto the marinas empty handed, but left with multiple items, including fishing gear. The Baxter County Sheriff’s office posted the video as part of the effort to identify the suspects.

According to investigators, a man and his friend were working on a radio in the man’s boat at Cranfield Marina on July 12 came in contact with two members of the Kansas trio.

The men left about 10:30 p.m. to get more tools and ran into two young males on the walkway of Dock 5.

He reported one of the young men wanted to talk to him about fishing but he was in a hurry and cut the conversation short.

Surveillance video showed the men to have been in a gold-colored 2004 Lexus. It was discovered by investigators that Christensen was listed as owning such a vehicle.

One major slip up made by a member of the trio came at a 24-Hour-Fuel station on U.S. Highway 62 East. All three men went into the store and two of them made cash purchases. One of the trio used a tap feature on his phone to pay for a bottle of water. The account was traced to Helms and a bank verified it was Helms’ account that was used and provided other identifying information on the suspect.

Investigators believe the visit to the store came after the three suspects had stolen items from Cranfield Marina.

Further investigation showed that Sabin had pawned fishing gear and boating related items at a shop in Independence, Missouri.

Sabin and Christensen were discovered to have been arrested recently for stealing items from a boat dock in Douglas County Missouri.

The value of items stolen from the Missouri dock was estimated at $24,000. The take included eight electronic fish finders.

As with the thefts in Baxter County, the incidents in Missouri were also captured by surveillance cameras and pictures were posted on-line by the Douglas County Sheriff’s office.

In the Baxter County cases, Sabin and Helm are being represented by Paul Bayless and Christensen by Emily Reed.

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