ST. GEORGE — A 19-year-old Dixie State University student was arrested for burglary, multiple counts of theft and possession of alcohol by a minor after Dixie State University Campus Police and St. George Police officers found him in possession of various items reported stolen by other students.
On Nov. 14, Shamil Blaisdell was arrested after both St. George Police and DSU Campus Police officers responded to multiple burglary and theft reports from various individuals. Blaisdell was ultimately found in possession of the stolen items.
On Nov. 13, Dixie State University Police officer Eldon Gibb responded to a report of a burglary call and met with five alleged victims at the Chancellor Apartments, 11 S. 800 East.
“I found an individual had unlawfully entered their apartment and had taken items from their bedrooms without their permission,” Gibb wrote in the probable cause statement supporting the charges.
The items taken in this incident included several items of clothing, a Proscan tablet, a laundry basket containing dirty clothes, a DVD player, a Nokia cellphone and athletic slippers.
Shamil Blaisdell, booking photo posted Nov. 14, 2014 | Photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News
On Nov. 14, St. George Police Officer Chad Lee responded to a theft report at the Campus Villa Apartments, 833 E. Tabernacle St., where stolen items included an Xbox game system, DVDs, video games, a laptop, a laptop cooling pad, a computer mouse, a penny skateboard and a set of computer speakers, according to a probable cause statement filed by Lee.
DSU Campus Police Officer Dan Kaonohi responded to yet another theft report of an iPad being taken from the Chancellor Apartments the same day Lee was conducting his investigation, according to a probable cause statement filed by Kaonohi.
Lee located Blaisdell at his campus apartment and searched his room, where he found a can of beer, a bottle of vodka and items that Gibb had inquired about in his case. Lee seized an iPad, later verified by its serial number to be one of the items reported stolen, along with a tablet as evidence that Blaisdell had been involved in the thefts.
Lee left the remainder of the items in the room and arrested Blaisdell for possession of stolen property totaling approximately $2,000 as well as possession of alcohol by a minor.
Kaonohi later responded to the Purgatory Correctional Facility and signed for a burglary charge to be added against Blaisdell regarding the stolen iPad.
On Nov. 15, Gibb obtained a search warrant and took the other items, which Lee had seen the previous day, from Blaisdell’s room. He found a bath towel, black headphone case and other clothing items that had been reported stolen. According to his probable cause statement, Gibb found those stolen items to total more than $500.
“I found Mr. Blaisdell to have been in possession of several items that belonged to five different victims,” Gibb wrote in his statement. “I found Mr. Blaisdell to be incarcerated at the Washington County Jail Facility.”
Dixie State University crime statistics 2006-2012, circa, 2013 | Photo by Holly Coombs, St. George News | Click on image to enlarge for legibility
According to DSU Police Department’s statistics, a consistent average of between three and four burglaries have taken place each year among university students between the 2006 and 2012 school years. Theft cases, on the other hand, have ranged from six to 17 different cases each year.
DSU Campus Police Director Don Reid said the statistics on theft and burglary generally stay low but will be higher this year with the six different cases connected to Blaisdell.
“Theft and burglary happen a lot less often than you would think,” Reid said.
Generally, university students might decide to steal when they are not doing well in school or are not receiving financial support, so they start stealing from people around them, Reid said.
Blaisdell was booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility on charges of theft by receiving property valued between $1,500-$5,000, a third-degree felony; burglary of a dwelling, a second-degree felony; theft by receiving stolen property exceeding $500, a class A misdemeanor; and theft and unlawful possession of alcohol, both class B misdemeanors.
He made his initial appearance in 5th District Court Monday and is scheduled to counsel with an attorney this coming Monday. Blaisdell’s bail is set at $10,680, according to current booking information, and he remains in custody at the time of this publication.
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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