GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The man accused of going on a crime spree in a residential neighborhood over the weekend was officially arraigned on a number of charges Tuesday afternoon.
47-year-old James Paul Churchill was in Kent County’s 63rd District Court Tuesday as he was charged with several felonies.
Churchill faces three felonies— receiving and concealing stolen property, obstructing or resisting a police officer and stealing a financial transaction device.
He is also charged with second degree retail fraud, which is a misdemeanor.
Churchill initially was scheduled to be arraigned on the charges Monday afternoon.
That did not end up happening— as Judge Jeffrey J. O’Hara explained to FOX 17, Churchill refused to come out of his cell to face arraignment via a live video feed set up in the jail center.
On Tuesday, Judge O’Hara was determined to get the process moving along.
He told FOX 17 that he was ready to move a mobile camera cart into Churchill’s holding area to conduct the arraignment if he wasn’t willing to cooperate for a second day.
Just before 3:30 p.m., Churchill popped up on the screen in O’Hara’s courtroom.
According to information Judge O'Hara read aloud Tuesday, Churchill currently is unemployed and unhoused.
His bond was set at $10,000 cash surety.
Investigators say Churchill broke in to several vehicles and garages in the city of Fremont in the early morning hours of Sunday, between 3 and 4 a.m..
According to Fremont Police Chief Tim Rodwell, his department has received nine reports of either breaking and entering or theft on the east side of the city, in an area near Arboretum Park.
Chief Rodwell tells FOX 17 they are still looking for a woman they believe was also involved in the thefts.
They say Churchill is also accused of stealing a Chevy Silverado pickup truck that night, belonging to a man named Chad Korytkowski.
“When someone steals a vehicle or steals something from you, you feel violated,” Korytkowski told FOX 17 Tuesday afternoon.
“It's frustrating for us because it changes our whole small town.”
He first noticed his truck was missing when he brought his dog outside around 6 a.m. Sunday.
Korytkowski says police were on scene within about five minutes after he called 911.
“I’ve lived in this house 25 years. I've never had any issue like this whatsoever,” he explained Tuesday.
As officers were gathering information from Korytkowski, they began receiving additional reports from neighbors in the area.
“While taking that report, and trying to broadcast the message to other jurisdictions to look out for the truck, additional reports came in for cars that had been entered, garages that had been entered,” Fremont Police Chief Tim Rodwell recalled to FOX 17 on Tuesday.
“Homeowners knew each other, and were broadcasting and texting each other with neighbors… to let everyone know what was going on, and that really helped us to get a good picture of what transpired.”
Korytkowski had, unfortunately, forgotten his wallet inside his truck when he went to bed Saturday evening.
Churchill is accused of trying to use the cards inside Korytkowski’s wallet at multiple businesses.
“They used it at Walmart. They used it for gas and then they used my business card for snacks, I think,” Korytkowski explained.
Around 2:15 p.m. Sunday afternoon, deputies with the Kent County Sheriff’s Office located what they thought was the stolen Silverado in the parking lot of the Walmart in Cascade Township.
They say they waited in the area, eventually seeing Churchill approach the truck and begin loading items into the back.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, Churchill tried to run away when the deputies approached him in the lot.
In addition to all of the items he is accused of taking from vehicles and garages Sunday morning, he is also accused of stealing merchandise from the Cascade Township Walmart he was picked up at.
Judge O’Hara explained in court Tuesday that he is alleged to have taken fewer than $200 of merchandise.
James Churchill has an extensive criminal record— he pleaded guilty to a felony armed robbery charge in 1999, and felony breaking and entering in 2011.
He also pleaded guilty to felony use of a financial transaction device in 2021 and 2022.
Korytkowski eventually got his truck back from investigators, but somewhat worse for wear.
“The truck is not 100%,” he said Tuesday.
“They didn't wrap it around a tree or anything like that, but I have the service engine soon light on, they graffiti’d the inside of it.”
Chief Rodwell said Tuesday that the case was resolved as a result of solid law enforcement work, and neighbors looking out for each other.
“When people act as a team, they can do wonderful things, and that's what we saw.. neighbors helping neighbors,” Chief Rodwell said.
“This is a community where people work together, they worship together, go to school together or have gone to school together, and that sense of community is very strong.”
There has been speculation on social media that the culprits used a sort of RFID flipper device to get inside some of the vehicles.
Chief Rodwell tells FOX 17 that while they are investigating that possibility, he could not confirm that any such device was used as of Monday morning.
These types of devices are used to duplicate short-range wireless signals, and can potentially be used to open vehicles that utilize electronic key fobs.
If anyone has any information on the overnight break-ins, or the people responsible, you are asked to reach out to the Fremont Police Department at (231) 924-2100, or submit information completely anonymously via Silent Observer at (231) 652-1121.
Anyone who believes they may have been impacted by these subjects, having property gone through or stolen, should also reach out to make a report.
