CRANDALL, Texas — An arrest warrant affidavit obtained by inForney.com today further outlines the case against the former police chief in Crandall who now stands charged with tampering with evidence and two counts of theft of a firearm by a public servant.
CRANDALL, Texas — An arrest warrant affidavit obtained by inForney.com today further outlines the case against the former police chief in Crandall who now stands charged with tampering with evidence and two counts of theft of a firearm by a public servant.
Former Police Chief Billy Wayne Kilgore, 41, was booked into the Kaufman County Jail early Saturday morning charged with two counts of theft of a firearm by a public servant and tampering or fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair. Bond was been set at $10,000 on each charge.
The affidavit further outlines the charges against Kilgore which alleges several firearms, both department owned and from the department's evidence room, had been stolen — some of which were pawned and others eventually returned upon discovery of their theft.
In addition to the firearms, records indicate cash and the evidence room log book were taken from the evidence room – the removal of which could “cripple” the department's ability to successfully prosecute cases for which evidence was held, according to the affidavit.
The case against Kilgore began after his resignation when former Police Chief Dean Winters was reinstated as the chief of police for the Crandall Police Department.
Upon his return, Winters conducted an inspection and audit of the police department, its gun safe, and its evidence room — discovering several firearms were missing.
Winters, according to the affidavit, asked Kilgore about the missing firearms. Kilgore told Winters the firearms were not in his possession and should be in the department's gun safe, according to the affidavit.
Winters informed Kilgore the Texas Rangers would be contacted to investigation should the firearms not be located.
“The day after Chief Winters made the statement, Kilgore contacted him and stated 'Don't call the Rangers, I have the guns,'” states the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, weapons had been taken from the evidence room and pawned at two separate Kaufman-area pawn shops as early as January 3, 2016 — a day before Kilgore's interim appointment to police chief was made permanent by the Crandall City Council at the time.
Kilgore would later return a missing Bushmaster AR-15 and a Remington 870 shogun, both owned by the department, and a Smith & Wesson Model 36 pistol and a .38 caliber Derringer Ex Cam Model TA, which were taken from evidence, before becoming uncooperative in the investigation.
$3,533 in cash, seized during a criminal drug case, was also reported missing from the evidence room.
When questioned, Kilgore told investigators the cash was returned to the suspect's girlfriend. The girlfriend later told investigators that $2,500 had been returned to her and a Crandall police officer gave her a toddler's bicycle.
No receipt was given to the girlfriend and no paperwork was done by the officer, according to the affidavit.
“According to this information, $1,033 remains unaccounted for,” states the affidavit.
The return of the seized funds did not comply with the department's policies which, according to the affidavit, were put in place to protect the department so that the handling of seized funds could not be questioned.
The affidavit does not address any money presumably obtained from pawning several of the firearms.
The affidavit states the evidence log book was taken from the evidence room to prevent discovery of his "illegal actions.
“Kilgore, being an experienced police officer and previous custodian of the evidence kept there, knew removing the evidence log book would harm (cripple) the Crandall Police Department in its ability to successfully prosecute cases for which evidence was held,” states the affidavit. “Kilgore removed, concealed, or destroyed the Crandall Police Department Evidence Vault Log Book, a critical component for documenting the chain of custody for every piece of evidence stored in the Crandall Police Department Evidence Vault.”
Although the log book that was taken has not been recovered, Winters tells inForney.com, in response to an email inquiry, that the removal of the log book will not hinder, delay, or otherwise obstruct any ongoing cases.
The two firearms that were taken from the evidence room, and eventually recovered, were also not linked to any ongoing cases, according to Winters.
Kilgore posted $30,000 bond on Monday afternoon and was released from the Kaufman County Jail.
This is a developing story.