Midland City family charged in connection to burglary ring

Dale County Sheriff’s investigators have charged three members of a Midland City family in connection to a Wiregrass burglary ring.

Sheriff’s Investigator Harvey Mathis said investigators initially arrested Joshua Michael Corley, 19, of Adams Street, last week and charged him with multiple felony counts of third-degree burglary and several counts of theft of property.

Mathis said investigators later charged Corley’s father, Tony Chandler, with felony first-degree receiving stolen property after they found a reportedly stolen laptop computer in the family home. Chandler was later charged with two misdemeanor counts of third-degree theft of property after investigators found stolen jewelry and a stolen pistol in the home. Investigators also filed a felony petition against one of Chandler’s underage children for felony first-degree receiving stolen property after they found reported stolen property in the child’s bedroom.

Mathis said Corley and a second man, Jon Alan Martin, 21, of Daleville, have admitted to investigators that they committed several residential burglaries and several attempted burglaries. He said multiple juvenile petitions for arrest have also been filed against a 17-year-old Midland City boy in several of the burglaries.

Corley is being held without bond at the Dale County Jail. Corley was previously out on bond for a third-degree burglary and felony theft charge from March 4. He was previously released on a $5,000 bond.

Investigators also arrested Levi Dewberry II, 39, of Newton, earlier this week and charged him with felony receiving stolen property. Dewberry previously pleaded guilty in 1994 to felony possession of a controlled substance.

Mathis said the property was reportedly stolen over the past six months, and included various items from jewelry, to guns and televisions, to laptop computers and cameras. He said much of the property from the near dozen burglaries was recovered from Corley and Dewberry’s homes, along with pawnshops in Dothan, Daleville, Ozark and Enterprise.

Mathis has called the burglary ring an ongoing situation that has also included authorities in Houston County and Midland City.

“We’re slowly taking this ring apart, Mathis said.