BEDFORD – A Martinsville man was arrested on a warrant after an incident on Wednesday, July 31,
Bedford Police Officer Brent Thompkins responded to the 1000 block of Hillcrest Road after a report of a woman reported her vehicle would not start after receiving threat messages earlier in the day.
The woman told police that her maroon 2006 Jeep Commander did not sound like it was running right as she returned home from the Bedford Police Department. Now, her vehicle would not start. She noticed the gas cap was loose. She found a red oily substance inside the gas port. She believed her ex-boyfriend Jesse Prince and his brother had put something in her gas tank. The woman’s neighbor reported she had seen two males in a white truck drive by the woman’s residence about ten times the night before. Her ex’s brother drives a white truck. The incident was captured on security video. The video shows the white truck driving by the residence. It then showed a male in a sweatshirt with a hood covering his head walking to the woman’s Jeep, opening the gas cap, and putting something in the gas tank.
The woman also has a protective order in place against Prince.
Police spoke to 27-year-old Prince on July 23. He denied the allegations.
Police also spoke to Prince’s brother. He admitted he and his brother had been drinking heavily at their mother’s home in Martinsville. He said Jesse wanted to go for a drive and drove past the woman’s house that night. They then stopped just up the road from the woman’s house, and Jesse got out of the vehicle and walked toward the woman’s home. He told police he couldn’t see what Jesse was doing but was probably “up to no good.”
Police learned the threatening messages were made from the brother’s cell phone. The brother said Jesse used his phone and had sent the messages to the woman.
The information was forwarded to the Lawrence County Prosecutor’s Office, and a warrant was issued for Prince’s arrest on charges of intimidation, invasion of privacy, and criminal mischief.
