Four Houston men indicted in Moulton’s early Christmas ATM heist in 2020

Lavaca County grand jurors issued several felony indictments Thursday against four Houston area individuals who law enforcement officials say were behind an early Christmas ATM heist in 2020 at a Moulton bank drive-through.

Moulton Police Chief Mitchell Bennett traveled to the Lavaca County Courthouse in Hallettsville on Thursday, May 26, to present his case to the grand jury. Tracking down the alleged ATM burglars proved no simple feat, he shared with the newspaper on multiple accounts.

According to Bennett, the thieves in his 2020 ATM burglary apparently stole a pickup from a nearby residence. Then, using the stolen truck and tow chains with heavy duty J-hooks, they ripped apart the town’s lone drive-through ATM at Crossroads Bank, taking the thousands in cash it held before disappearing into the night aboard the waiting getaway car.

Most vexing, perhaps, was that all this the thieves managed in mere seconds, with both a local patrol officer on duty and the chief, who lived just a couple blocks away from the crime scene, just a minute behind them.

Subsequent reviews of local surveillance footage from various locations around town suggested the suspected thieves spent several hours casing several places around town before they sprang their heist, careful to keep tabs on the patrolling officer at all times that evening.

Further investigation revealed that similar such crimes had been executed all around the area, Bennett later learned, in Ganado, using a truck stolen from nearby Edna in that crime; in Yoakum, where a like crimes were attempted at two locations but never successfully executed; as well as Weimar and Round Top in Fayette County, where similar ATM heists with the same sort of seconds-flat tactics were also used.

The ATM crime spree was one of several that swept the area in late 2020/early 2021, with a total of 16 vehicles—all mostly late-model, large, 4x4 crew-cab pickups —reported stolen in coming days from places around Hallettsville, Gonzales and Shiner. 

It also came with what would be the very first instances of what area lawmen now commonly refer to as “bail-outs,” where an officer tries for a simple traffic stop, but rather than pull over, the suspect driver instead guns his engine and leads police on a high speed chase out into the country, where—usually after the suspect loses control and crashes—he piles out, along with as many as two dozen other vehicle occupants and scatters into the darkness.

If, that is, the other vehicle occupants—packed person-on-person in the space where a truck’s back seat should have been—can even walk. On several occasions, the drivers left very injured passengers to whatever fate befell them. 

One such case near Ezzell in March 2021, had officers rescuing eight badly injured patients from just such a predicament, after their driver lost control on a gravel road and ran head-on into a massive oak doing 100 mph-plus, officers said.

It caused the truck to burst into flames almost instantly, trapping them inside. Even with eight people in need of serious emergency care in that case, the driver and as many as five others still managed to escape that night, officers later reported. 

The crashed truck later turned up stolen, as was the case in the multitude of bailouts that followed in coming months. In most, the passengers most vulnerable were the ones piled man-on-man in the space where a back seat should have been—now removed to hold more bodies inside the truck’s cab—and nearly all involved the same type of late-model, large 4x4 club-cab pickups that was a favorite among the county’s car thieves.

Plus, no sooner than the grand jury returned its indictments in Moulton’s Christmastime 2020 ATM case, Bennett was off running once again, this time to deal with a bomb scare at the local school campus, just two days after Ulvalde’s tragic events unfolded (see related stories).

Keep in mind, an indictment does not mean the people named are necessarily guilty of the crimes listed. It does indicate, however, that a strong enough case was presented that grand jurors felt a trial was warranted, at which time the courts will determine the guilt or innocence of the accused.

Indicted in Hallettsville on May 26 were: 

• Jamarlon Marquez Butler, 35, on third-degree criminal mischief (for damages to the bank’s property and equipment), second-degree theft of less than $300,000 from an ATM, and first-degree engaging in organized crime.

• Lamarcus Damond Griffin, 35, on third-degree criminal mischief, second-degree theft of less than $300,000 from an ATM, and first-degree engaging in organized crime.

• Marques Jermanie Strambler, 33, on third-degree criminal mischief, second-degree theft of less than $300,000 from an ATM, and first-degree engaging in organized crime.

• Cartney Brooks, 36, on first-degree engaging in organized crime.