A final pretrial conference is scheduled for Oct. 25 for a Lake Geneva man charged with stealing more than $7,000 worth of items including two guns from a Lake Shore Drive home in 2015.
Michael A. Jones, 21, was charged Dec. 7, 2016, in Walworth County Circuit Court with burglary of a building or dwelling as a party to a crime. He was charged earlier in 2016 with second-degree sexual assault, strangulation and suffocation and having sex with a child 16 years old or older. A status conference is also scheduled for Oct. 25 in that case.
Jones pleaded not guilty to the burglary charge June 27. A jury trial is scheduled for Nov. 6 in that case.
According to the criminal complaint, the caretaker of the Lake Geneva home of Mark Tebbe noticed furniture on the deck had been moved, dirty footprints were on the deck and the screen door had been damaged Nov. 25, 2015. The basement door, garage door and two windows of the home were unlocked and a gun safe that contained a 20-gauge shotgun and a pistol was missing from under a bed, according to the complaint. Also missing were alcohol including vintage bottles valued at $2,500, $500 to $1,000 cash, a container of coins, two bicycles valued at $1,500 each, tools valued at $700 and a Sawzall valued at $100, according to the complaint.
“Squatters” were living in a tent in a neighbor’s yard, and the tent and clothes and a baseball bat found in the tent belonged to Tebbe, the complaint states.
On Oct. 24, 2016, Tebbe’s gun was found in another neighbor’s boathouse after someone had trespassed in the boathouse, according to the complaint.
On Aug. 15, Jones was questioned about trespassing in the boathouse. He admitted he was there with another man and said he handled the shotgun that the other man took from a lake home, according to the complaint. Jones described Tebbe’s home and knew details about Tebbe and the burglary but denied involvement, according to the complaint.
Jones eventually admitted being in Tebbe’s garage when the other man burglarized the home and admitted sleeping in the tent with the other man in the neighbor’s yard, according to the complaint.
