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Dumb Crime An Extension Of Choices
Phil Luciano | Peoria Journal Star | 08/04/2006

In one of two ways, Jesse Starry made a dumb choice, police say.
From all indications, he is lousy at either planning crimes or picking friends.

Whatever the case, the caper at his Pekin rental home qualifies as one of the worst schemes in recent memory. Shockingly, marijuana was involved. Whether weed might've impaired anyone's shrewdness as a would-be criminal mastermind, well, you make the call.

Starry, 24, had been renting a house on Fenley Avenue. Recently, Pekin police got a call from a next-door neighbor who noticed a suspicious extension cord in her back yard.

It wasn't hard to spot. The cord was bright orange.

One end was jammed into an electrical cord that ran from the neighbor's house to a backyard fish pond. The orange cord then slithered through the neighbor's lawn, up over a fence, across Starry's back yard and into Starry's side door.

I'm not sure, exactly, how one might actually expect a neighbor not to spot a scofflaw extension cord sucking away free electricity. But my guess is, the best tactic would not involve picking a bright color and stretching it 4 feet up over a fence.

Anyway, the responding officers did what they always do: follow the trail of evidence. They knocked on the front door, but got no answer. So they went around back to knock there.

They heard nothing, but got an eyeful. Right through a window they spotted 14 pot plants lushly prospering under grow lights.

"There were windows all over the place, open," officer Dustin Salmon says.

Police left to get a search warrant. They returned with paper a couple of hours later, but the plants were gone.

Officers found out the dwelling's electricity had been cut off. However, the grow lights were connected to the orange cord, as were a pair of box fans and the refrigerator.

Police searched the neighborhood and discovered the pot plants dumped into a nearby gully. They also found 100 rounds of .40-caliber ammunition, which matched ammunition found in the house.

How did the plants get out of the house? Salmon thinks at least one person (if not more) was inside when the police originally arrived, but didn't answer the door. When officers left, the plants were removed, along with the ammo.

Police later tracked down Starry and charged him with possession of marijuana plants and possession of firearm ammunition by a felon, a felony punishable by up to five years. His record includes an arrest this year on a charge of methamphetamine possession. He was arrested in 2001 and charged with burglary and unlawful possession of a controlled substance.

However, the matter isn't finished. Police and prosecutors might have more work to do, because Starry says he's innocent.

"Of course, he's saying, 'It wasn't me,' " officer Salmon says. " ... (But) it kind of makes sense."

Not only did Starry have no electricity in the house, he was getting evicted, Salmon says. So, though some of his belongings remained at the house, he was flopping elsewhere and staying away from the rental home.

Before that, though, a pair of men had been seen by neighbors hanging out with Starry at the rental home. After Starry bolted, the two friends might've slipped into the place to live free - and launch their mini-marijuana operation.

Police are still figuring out how long Starry might've been gone from the rental home. The pot plants, some up to 3 feet high, had been growing at least a month.

Starry's alibi should spark skepticism. Then again, if your name is on the lease of a home, are you that whacked as to run an electrical cord to the next-door residence?

"Is Jesse Starry really that dumb?" Salmon asks. "It could be. But it would make more sense if someone else did it."

I couldn't track down Starry, who bonded out of jail for $200. He's no longer at the rental house, and police aren't exactly sure of his whereabouts.

It'll be interesting to see how this case shakes out in court. Regardless, if Starry is telling the truth, he needs to pick better friends.

"Or cover your windows," officer Salmon adds with a chuckle. "Or buy green extension cords."

 

dedbr

maybe he hated his neighbors and thought they would get busted for growing since it was their electric being used?

Maybe he just wanted to share the expenses,( I've heard it can be expensive to grow indoors.... )

Maybe since he's a career criminal, he's just working on his career?

Or, this is one of the dumbest assholes to ever set a seed? But then again, he didn't have the neighbors sucking juice off him for about a month, huh?

Of course, it's just another day....


Some Where In Ded Land........

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Vincent.... Don Mclean


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