NA MEMBERS ARRESTED ON 25 BURGLARY CHARGES SUPPORT HEROIN HABIT

A Lewes man who was jailed Friday on burglary offenses and his 23-year-old accomplice have now been charged in at least 25 residential break-ins last month throughout Sussex County, police said.

David A. Honeycutt, 33, and Catherine N. Manning of Georgetown were charged Wednesday in connection with 19 burglaries in state police jurisdiction and six others in Rehoboth Beach and Georgetown, state police Cpl. Bruce Harris said.

The pair met two months ago at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting and were “working as a team” by breaking into houses and “targeting jewelry to support their drug habits, which included heroin and prescription drugs,” according to court records.

Honeycutt was arrested Friday after a Georgetown man spotted him in the vicinity of his neighbor’s Conaway Road home and flagged down troopers. He was charged then with attempted burglary and four other offenses. Manning was freed, but arrested Saturday on the same charges.

The break-ins linked to Honeycutt and Manning took place between May 6 and Friday and allegedly netted an estimated $70,000 in jewelry, along with coin collections, cash, prescription drugs and a gun. They usually got in by breaking a rear window.

The locations of the burglaries:

» Sussex Drive in Highland Acres, 19000 block of Plantation Road — where more than $20,000 in jewelry was stolen — the first block of Pine Tree Circle, 100 block of John J. Williams Highway, and the 33000 block of Wandering Lane — all in Lewes.

» First block of Ocean Breeze Drive in Rehoboth Shores Estates, where $7,000 worth of jewelry was reported stolen.

» The 16000 and 17000 blocks of Oak Road in Bridgeville.

»26000 block of Hollyville Road in Millsboro.

» The 22000 block of Park Avenue, 20000 block of Gravel Hill Road, 30000 block of Conaway Road and the 24000 block of Shortly Road — all in Georgetown.

Of those incidents, 23 victims reported burglaries, Harris said.

Investigators learned the pair pawned the stolen jewelry at a pawn shop on Lewes-Georgetown Highway in Georgetown, where the pawnbroker would “buy the gold without making any recording of the transaction,” police said in court records.

That has led to another investigation into the shop’s compliance with the state’s pawn-shop requirements, because the employees bought the stolen jewelry from the suspects and did not record pertinent information about the seller or merchandise, police said.

Detectives moved to have the pawn shop’s license suspended pending an administrative hearing, Harris said.

According to law, all pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers “shall create a record and provide information on a form (supplied by the state) recording the articles purchased.”

Honeycutt remains jailed on 55 burglary-related offenses at the Sussex Correctional Institution in lieu of $116,550 secured bail.

Manning is being held in the Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution on 53 burglary-related charges after failing to post $113,500 secured bail.

4 thoughts on “NA MEMBERS ARRESTED ON 25 BURGLARY CHARGES SUPPORT HEROIN HABIT

  1. This goes to show why minors or young women are not safe in AA/NA meetings.This young girl met this older NA member at an NA meeting in Delaware.
    Also shows why these meetings pose a public safety threat to a community and
    playgrounds.

  2. I believe what you are doing with this site is commendable. NA and AA have
    morphed into a very dangerous place to be because of the false Anonymity it
    provides. People never believe that it will happen in their community, but the
    recent arrest of Bob Ryder in Lewiston Maine for the murdfer of Danita Brown is
    a classic example that needs to be told. Ryders murder was confessed to his AA
    sponsor, who took over two weeks to go to the police because of Anonymity in
    AA. These practices need to be stopped because I am sure that there are many
    more of these stories that need to be told. With the help the help of sites
    like this these practices will be stopped and we will all be safer.

  3. I hear ya, here was a young woman in her twenties getting hooked up
    with a guy 9 years older than her from an NA meeting,and she
    became an accomplice to these crimes.He was not a good
    influence on her,huh?

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