Tilting Town Car leads to two arrests
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

An overloaded trailer with no taillights led a Wharton County Sheriff's deputy to arrest two suspects in a burglary in neighboring Colorado County.

Deputy James Elliott was on patrol on Hwy. 71 in the Taiton area around 1:15 a.m. Wednesday when he saw a Lincoln Town Car towing an unlighted trailer with no license plate.

"The load was heavy, making the vehicle sag in the back," WCSO Lt. Danny Marek said. "It was overloaded."

Elliott followed the vehicle, stopping it at FM 2546 West at CR 343. There were two El Campo men in the vehicle: Matthew Amezquita, 26, of 918 Ellwood and 21-year-old Rusty Winzenried of 636 CR 390.

"They had no ID and seemed nervous," Marek said. "The car's back seat had numerous items in it."

Elliott arrested Amezquita on a charge of public intoxication and Winzenried, the driver, for failure to display a driver's license and failure to display trailer registration.

The car, the property inside it, the trailer and all the items on it were impounded. Some of the property included tools, a compound bow, arrows, tool boxes, chains, a machete, 18-wheeler tires and rims, a floor jack, farm implements and an air compressor.

"After searching the vehicle and documenting the property, Deputy Elliott noticed two receipts. That led him to believe property may have been stolen from Colorado County," Marek said.

Colorado County Sheriff's Lt. Troy Neisner said the night the men were stopped, there had been a burglary at Larry's Service Station in Garwood, and a theft on CR 114 in that county.

Burglars broke a window at the gas station and stole 18-wheeler tires and other items. Thieves took air compressors, tools and other equipment from the back of a pickup on the CR 114 property, Neisner said.

"The next morning, our deputy went to investigate the theft and burglary," Neisner said. "We work pretty closely with Wharton County, so there was no problem putting it all together. Everything in the trailer stopped by the deputy was identified as stolen from our county."

Each of the two arrested men was then served with a warrant for burglary of a building, then transferred to Colorado County's custody Sunday.

Amezquita is being held on $50,000 bond on the burglary charge and $500 bond for the public intoxication charge. Winzenried faces $1,000 bond on the two Wharton County charges and $50,000 bond for the burglary charge.

Neisner said both remained in custody in Colorado County Jail as of Tuesday morning.

The arrests are among several in recent months for property crimes that criss-crossed the borders of nearby counties.

On Nov. 18, a Victoria man accused of burglarizing rural homes in Wharton and several other counties was captured by a Jackson County Sheriff's captain after Wharton County passed on a vehicle description.

In September, a break-in at a storm evacuee's home outside of El Campo led law enforcers in two counties to break up a large burglary ring in Matagorda County.

And five Pasadena teenagers - four of them illegal aliens - were charged for their alleged El Campo crimes during a July spree of smashand grab burglaries at stores from El Campo to Ganado to Point Comfort in an effort involving at least four law enforcement agencies.