Within the span of a couple of months, one Box Butte County man has seen five criminal cases filed against him.
Chad Kelley, 38, of Alliance, was recently taken into custody on a warrant and is facing several misdemeanor and felony cases. According to court records, in the first case, which was filed on June 30, Kelley is charged with unauthorized use of a propelled vehicle, a class 3 misdemeanor. The charges spawn from an incident on June 4 in which Kelley, according to the complaint filed in Box Butte County Court, utilized a vehicle without the owner’s consent.
In the second case, Kelley was issued a citation for possession of drug paraphernalia, an infraction, on July 10. According to court records, the violation occurred in the 500 block of East Third Street. The third case filed against Kelley was filed on July 18 for failure to appear or comply with a citation, a class 3 misdemeanor. The charge is the result of Kelley failing to appear on July 5 in Box Butte County Court regarding the first case filed against him.
A felony case was filed against Kelley on July 21, where he is charged with possession of Alprazolam, a class 4 felony, possession of Fentanyl, a class 4 felony, unauthorized use of a propelled vehicle, a class 3 misdemeanor, and possession of drug paraphernalia, an infraction.
According to the Affidavit for Custody filed in the case, on July 19, the Nebraska State Patrol was assisting the Alliance Police Department with a stolen vehicle case, with a state trooper responding to the 200 block of Howard Ave with officers and the owner of the vehicle.
The officers observed a 1997 Ford F-150 without license plates parked on the east curb of Howard Ave, facing north. Officers spoke with the vehicle’s owner, who told them the vehicle was stored at another location, and that they saw the vehicle parked at that location at 6:30 a.m. that day. Officers inspected the vehicle, and noted that it did not have an ignition. The owner told officers the vehicle was started using a screwdriver and that they had removed a fuse from the fuse box, which would need to be replaced to start the vehicle.
Another person at the scene told officers they saw a person they identified as Chad Kelley in the area of the vehicle, heading northbound on a bicycle, turning onto Third Street, then north on Potash Avenue.
Officers also spoke with another person at the site who told them Kelley borrowed the vehicle four days prior to that incident, and that Kelley told that person, “that he lost a blue fentanyl pill in the truck and wished to find the truck to retrieve it.”
Officers asked the driver what items were in the vehicle the last time they left it, and the driver told them only a screwdriver and a jumper box. Upon searching the vehicle, officers located a clear plastic baggie containing two pills: fentanyl and 2mg of Alprazolam. The people at the scene told officers they had not entered the vehicle at any point before officers arrived.
Officers made contact with Kelley and asked if he had any illegal or dangerous items on him.
“Kelley then voluntarily emptied his pants pockets onto the ground by turning them inside out,” the Affidavit said. “At this time Officers viewed multiple items fall out of Kelley’s pockets. Amongst these items, Officers viewed a small piece of straw, a ball point pen tube, and a clear plastic baggie. The straw and the ball point pen tube were viewed to have a white residue inside and recognized as drug paraphernalia.”
Kelley was placed under arrest and advised of his rights. Kelley spoke with the officers, according to the Affidavit, admitting to taking the pickup and driving it to Alliance. He told officers he had taken the pickup to retrieve his license, but he could not get his license, which he said was under the driver’s seat, without a tool. Kelley told officers he left the truck to get a tool.
After Kelley was booked, a state trooper traveled to the location where the vehicle had been stored, and identified footprints near where the vehicle had been parked. The shoe prints were photographed and compared to the treads on Kelley’s show, which were observed to be a match.
The fifth criminal case filed against Kelley in Box Butte County Court was opened on July 22. In that case, Kelley is charged with two counts of burglary, each a class 2A felony, theft by unlawful taking, $1,500-$4,999, a class 4 felony, and theft by unlawful taking, $501-$1,499, a class 1 misdemeanor.
According to the Affidavit and Application for Arrest Warrant filed in the case, the charges come as the result of an investigation into a burglary at the BNSF Railway maintenance building between June 20 at 11:30 p.m. and June 21 at 2:30 a.m.
A supervisor for BNSF told a Special Agent for the BNSF Railway Police Department that an impact wrench was missing from a work truck that was parked inside of a locked garage. Upon reviewing the camera footage, the agent observed a white male suspect wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt and a distinctive baseball hat ride up to the building and enter it through a side door. The male was seen walking throughout the building near the toolbox area. He was also observed attempting to pry open a vending machine inside the office area. At 11:55, the man was observed carrying some items from the work truck, and putting them in his sweatshirt. The man exited the building and left on his bicycle.
Between 1:50 a.m. and 2:25 a.m. on June 21, the same man was seen returning to the building and entering through the side door. He was observed trying to open the vending machine by using a power drill to drill the lock on the front of the machine.
The attempt appeared to be unsuccessful, and the man was seen gathering items throughout the building and leaving carrying two tool bags and a black plastic hard side case. He was seen stashing the items by the side of the building and riding his bicycle away from the scene.
At 2:23 a.m., the man was seen returning to the building on foot, collecting the items and leaving the scene. The supervisor, who was shown the camera footage, identified the suspect in the video as Chad Kelley, who was terminated in 2020.
The supervisor was notified of other missing items, and another review of the camera footage showed a male wearing similar clothing at the scene between June 13 and June 14 pushing a wheelbarrow and pulling a grey metal flat cart close to the building. The supervisor identified the suspect in that incident as Chad Kelley as well.