Two men accused of breaking into a restaurant in Centralia via the HVAC system then using a saw to cut a hole into a safe in July have been charged in Lewis County Superior Court.
Cory Lee Hughes, 29, of Centralia, and Jordan Nathaniel White, 27, of Chehalis, are accused of accessing the restaurant’s roof and going through the HVAC system — causing “well over” $5,000 in damage to the system in the process — to break into the business sometime before 6:15 a.m. on July 17. Once inside, they allegedly used a reciprocating saw, also known as a sawzall, to cut a hole in a safe and steal $1,455.86. The two men then allegedly fled the scene in a blue Dodge Durango that was parked at a nearby car wash.
Officers with the Centralia Police Department were advised of the burglary alarm going off at the business as the burglary was happening but when they arrived, they reportedly found the doors locked with no signs of forced entry.
About an hour later, at 6:15 a.m., the restaurant’s manager called to report someone had entered the business, located in the 700 block of Harrison Avenue, and tried to cut open the safe.
Officers then searched the business and accessed surveillance footage from inside, which showed two men using the sawzall to cut a hole in the safe. Officers found several saw blades left behind throughout the business, according to court documents.
Surveillance footage from the car wash revealed the Dodge Durango’s license plate, which officers used to contact the vehicle’s registered owner. The owner told the police that Hughes had borrowed her vehicle on July 17 after White called him asking for “a ride.” Hughes was reportedly “acting suspicious after he returned from what he was doing,” soon going to a casino and spending $300 there, according to court documents.
A detective was assigned to the case on Aug. 24 and, upon reviewing the security footage, the detective was able to identify White by the tattoos on his hands. The vehicle’s owner confirmed that one of the two men in the video surveillance from the restaurant was White, but neither the detective nor the vehicle owner could identify the other man in the footage.
Hughes was arrested on Aug. 23 on an unrelated case and was formally charged with first-degree malicious mischief, second-degree theft and second-degree burglary related to the July 17 burglary in Lewis County Superior Court on Monday.
“The nature of this offense is more sophisticated than the traditional burglary would be,” said Deputy Prosecutor Scott Jackson at Hughes’ preliminary hearing on Monday.
Jackson recommended Hughes’ bail be set at $20,000, an amount that Defense Attorney Rachael Tiller agreed to. Judge James Lawler honored the agreement and set Hughes’ bail at $20,000 for the burglary.
Hughes’ next court appearance is an arraignment hearing scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 1.
White had not been booked into the Lewis County Jail as of Tuesday afternoon.
