An Emporia man remains in jail in lieu of a $10,000 bond on 51 charges filed Oct. 31 in Lyon County District Court. The majority of charges involve use or attempted use of stolen credit or debit cards.
Jonas A. Summers, 20, is charged with aggravated burglary; four counts of vehicle burglary; two counts of theft under $1,000; 16 counts of criminal use of financial card within seven days, under $500; 12 counts of forgery; nine counts of attempted criminal use of a financial card, within seven days, under $500; four counts of theft from three businesses within 72 hours; possession of stolen property, less than $500 value; and two counts of theft under $1,000.
All of the activity described in the complaint occurred during August.
According to a complaint filed in the case, the aggravated burglary charge alleges that on Aug. 5 of this year, Summers burglarized the home of a couple on Thompson Street while a person was in the home. He also is accused of burglarizing a vehicle in the garage at the house and taking a purse containing one of the residents’ driver’s license, Social Security card, miscellaneous credit cards and personal checks.
He is accused on that same day of using the couple’s credit-debit card to obtain “money, goods, property, services or communications services,” including items purchased at convenience stores and fast-food stores, and multiple purchases at a discount store.
Summers also is accused of using a credit card known to have been stolen by another person. Among the counts involved in the second victim’s case, Summers allegedly used the card repeatedly to charge amounts less than $1,000 within a 7-day period. Again, he is accused of making purchases at convenience and fast-food stores, a discount store, and a liquor store.
He also is accused of burglarizing a 2002 Grand Cherokee Jeep and taking possession of debit cards from two local financial institutions, which he is alleged to have used to charge amounts less than $1,000 in each instance.
He is accused of breaking into a 2006 Toyota Camry and taking two Visa cards, a bank debit card, and a department-store credit card and using them to purchase clothing, sunglasses, shoes, a video game system and games, paintball equipment and other miscellaneous items, and forging the signature of the cards’ owner for several of the purchases.
Another couple reported that their Land Rover had been broken into, with a credit card and currency taken. Summers allegedly used the card at a convenience store.
According to an affidavit filed in the case, Emporia Police Office Mark Lake was following up an investigation into use of one of the stolen credit cards when he and a security officer discovered the surveillance video “showing the same suspect using another credit card. ... ”
“On Aug. 17, 2007, Jonas A. Summers was arrested in Cowley County, Kansas driving a stolen (J)eep,” Emporia Police Detective Mark Senn wrote in the affidavit.
Summers confessed to stealing the Jeep on Aug. 12, the affidavit stated. He has not been charged with auto theft.
The affidavit said that Summers admitted possessing and using the credit cards belonging to the other two people, but denied stealing the cards.
Assistant Lyon County Attorney Amy L. Aranda requested that Summers’ bond be set higher due to flight risk, and asked that he be ordered to have no contact with victims or witnesses.