Homeless couple accused in joyride

A homeless couple ended up in jail this weekend after they allegedly took a car belonging to a good Samaritan who was trying to help them, and trashed it.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010712149891

Published December 14, 2010 in the Rutland Herald   Homeless couple accused in joyride         By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT               WEATHERSFIELD BOW — A homeless couple ended up in jail this weekend after they allegedly took a car belonging to a good Samaritan who was trying to help them, and trashed it.         Howard Bailey of New Hampshire and Mary Iverson of Maine, both 36, made separate appearances Monday afternoon in Windsor District Court before each ended up being sent back to jail.         Vermont State Police were called late Friday to the residence of Barry Newton, 64, in Weathersfield Bow, after Newton discovered that a Ford Mustang he had put away for the winter in a garage on his property had apparently been driven out and then scraped up and mangled. There were also stains inside that suggested whoever had used the car had been drinking when they were in it, troopers wrote in their report.         Newton blamed the damage on a homeless couple — “Howard Stevens” and “Mary Stewart” — who he told police he’d found living on the street in Claremont, N.H., just over a week ago and had offered his basement apartment at a low rent. Trooper Matt Steeves wrote that when he and Sgt. Anthony French went downstairs to talk to the couple they were playing music so loud that “we had to switch off the circuit breaker to the apartment in order to be heard knocking on the door.”         During initial questioning, Trooper Steeves wrote, Iverson gave her correct last name but Bailey persisted in calling himself “Stevens” until troopers were able to prove that he wasn’t, using driver’s license database information. Iverson then made up a story about an assault and another angry woman who crashed the car, Steeves wrote, before she allegedly admitted the story was false.         Bailey was taken into custody when it was determined New Hampshire had a fugitive from justice warrant outstanding for his arrest and Iverson was arrested as well after she said she had been behind the wheel of the Mustang and crashed it into a tree on the Old Bow Road, Steeves wrote.         Iverson, who registerd a 0.305 percent blood-alcohol level on a breath test after her arrest, was checked into the Springfield Hospital until Saturday when she was transferred to the correctional center.         On Monday, afternoon she pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent and to providing false information to police. Judge Patricia Zimmerman sentenced her to one month to serve in jail and left open the amount of restitution she will have to pay for any uninsured losses on the damage car.         Bailey waived extradition back to New Hampshire to face charges of driving in that state despite having been determined to be a habitual offender by the N.H. Department of Motor Vehicles, a charge his criminal record, which includes several drug involvements, shows he was also charged with in 2006.         http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20101214/NEWS02/712149891