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.