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Show Judge Issues Warrant For Arrest, Sets $50,000 Bail In Gun Thefts Interagency cooperation among law enforcement agencies in Garfield County has resulted in the breaking of a case of a theft of firearms from H&R Building Supply Sup-ply in Panguitch. A bench warrant for the arrest of the man suspected of taking three handguns from the hardware store has been issued, with bail set at $50,000. Officers had no solid evidence to solve the theft of the three pistols stolen from the Panguitch hardware store in September. Wayne Miller at H&R who reported the theft told Panguitch Police Chief Martin Nay that the handguns had been taken from a gun cabinet near the checkout check-out stand. When Chief Nay learned that Richard Postlethuwait, Escalante, charged with the theft of a firearm from S&C Merc on August Au-gust 14, in Panguitch was suspected of having other handguns. Nay contacted con-tacted Escalante area Sheriffs deputy Celeste Bernards. Bernards and Escalante Police Chief Anthony Byron obtained a search warrant on information supplied sup-plied by Escalante resident Paul Sorenson under an agreement Sorenson had made with County Attorney Wallace Lee and Sheriff Than Cooper to provide information informa-tion in return for the reducing of charges against him. Armed with a search warrant obtained ob-tained on Sorenson's information, Bernards and Byron conducted a search of the back yard of a residence resi-dence leased to Monte Kemp in Escalante where they unearthed several sev-eral watches stolen from an earlier burglary at Griffin General Merchandise Mer-chandise in Escalante and two 38 caliber pistols and one 22 caliber pistol, which, when serial numbers were compared, proved to be the handguns stolen from H&R in Panguitch. As a result of Sorenson's infor- mation and the officers' investigative investiga-tive work, Richard Postlethuwait, arrested with Sorenson on Sept. 21 in Escalante, has been charged with an additional four felonies, three counts of theft of a firearm, all second sec-ond degree felonies, and burglary, a third degree felony. Postlethuwait earlier was charged with two second degree felonies and a third degree felony. He is also awaiting trial in Garfield County on a charge of supplying alcohol to a minor, a class A misdemeanor. When Postlethuwait failed on Nov. 27 for the second time to appear in court as ordered, Judge David Mower issued is-sued a bench warrant for his arrest, setting bail at $50,000. Sorenson, who had been charged with two second degree felonies and a third degree felony, had charges against him dropped when he agreed on Nov. 7 to testify against Postlethuwait and provide information informa-tion to authorities. He pled guilty to burglary at Canyon Country Gas and Goodies in Escalante. He was sentenced to three years probation, restitution to the victim, and a jail sentence equivalent to time he had already served in the Garfield County jail. |