Union, Lee arrests bring end to string of church burglaries

Union County Sheriff Jimmy Edwards and Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson announced arrests Monday in connection with a string of church burglaries that have plagued both counties for the past several weeks.

They expressed frustration that their primary suspect, who has a history of similar crimes, was even free to commit these latest offenses.

Reid Raines

That suspect is a Guntown man, Reid M. Raines, 21, who is being charged in Lee County with four counts of burglary of a church.

In Union County, James Dykes, 36, is facing one charge of receiving stolen property and one count of possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine) with intent to transfer.

Justin Lee Wages, also 36, is charged in Union County with one count of contempt of court in justice court, one count of driving with a revoked or suspended license and one count of having no motor vehicle insurance.

More charges are pending.

Justin Wages

“We can tell you that Mr. Raines is a professional in breaking into churches and commercial buildings,” Sheriff Johnson said. “We do know that he has had multiple counts recently in 2017 there in Union County.”

“The most upsetting thing is we know he has had multiple counts of commercial burglaries including churches and was currently on probation with the Mississippi Department of Corrections,” Johnson continued. “He had not met his probation requirements and a warrant for him was issued in May. But we cannot determine that Mr. Raines has ever spent any time in custody of the Department of Corrections as far as being incarcerated. So while he is out, on 8-20 we arrested him.”

The churches burglarized in Lee County included Bethany Church on County Road 833 (Raines broke into this church twice). He also went into Mount Moriah Holiness Church on the north end of the county as well as the Blaire Tabernacle out on Hwy. 348.”

James Dykes

Johnson said investigation is continuing into church break-ins in Guntown and Sherman that Raines could be related to.

Taken in the burglaries was a large quantity of electronic equipment, musical instruments, cameras, surveillance equipment, car radios and bags with money.

The sheriffs said many of the stolen items have been recovered as far as they know, but a list is still being compiled. The money is gone and Johnson said the reason for the burglaries was to buy or trade for drugs. However, Edwards said that some of the money evidently was used to purchase lottery tickets, also.

Johnson said they will be seeking indictment of Raines as a habitual offender, which means he will serve every day of his sentence if convicted.

“We’re certainly appreciative of our relationship with Sheriff Johnson that’s been ongoing for several years. He’s always been very eager and very fast in working with us,” Sheriff Edwards said.

The Union County sheriff said his officers arrested Dykes Friday. “We have determined that some of the items that were stolen from Union County churches went through his hands,” Edwards said.

He added that Wages was arrested in Lee County and was still incarcerated there Monday. “He’s going to be charged with possession of stolen property and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon,” Edwards said.

“Reid Raines is being charged in Union County with three counts of church burglary. His bond has been set at $150,000,” Edwards added. “He is out on two felony bonds already. One with us on a commercial burglary where he has not been indicted yet because we have not had a grand jury due to the COVID, but we have one coming up. He’s also out on another felony bond in Guntown for a possession of meth charge.”

Edwards said the Union County churches burglarized were Blue Springs Baptist Church reported on Aug. 8, the Red Hill Missionary Baptist Church reported on Aug. 16 and Jericho Baptist Church reported Aug. 21, which was the same day Sheriff Johnson took him into custody.

Edwards said the arrests were the result of a chain of events with the two departments working together. A Lee County tip led to an arrest in Union County that led to a second individual and then a third with Raines being arrested during a traffic stop Thursday night.

“He also did thousands of dollars of damage after he would break into the churches,” Edwards said. “He would kick in the pastor’s door and knock windows out, kick in other doors to see if there is any property in there. He did about as much damage to the churches as the property he took, which is sad.”

At least some of the churches had surveillance equipment but he stole that, Edwards said.

No other counties appear to be involved. “It was mainly the east side of Union County and the west side of Lee,” Edwards said, which is near the Guntown area where Raines lives.

“The difficult thing is that most churches he broke in were churches that did not staff someone full time,” Johnson said. “So if he went in on the right day they wouldn’t discover it for several days. And then with the COVID a lot of churches are not meeting, limiting it even more than that.”

“The sad thing about it is the individual is breaking into churches,” Johnson said. “The second thing is the system has caused us to have more victims because if they had dealt with him to begin with you wouldn’t have all this right here.”

“State law says if you’re out on a felony bond and commit another felony that carries over five years, the previous bond can be revoked,” Edwards said, meaning Raines has little chance of being freed.

“You can’t change the spots on a leopard,” Edwards continued. “I’m not saying you can’t try to rehabilitate somebody but we’ve got people making laws that are ridiculous right now. We have to enforce what they give us and we could hope that they would put a little more teeth in laws instead of trying to take them away because you see the result, constantly.”

The two departments have contacted the churches but some are still doing inventory and don’t know what all is missing. Some thefts may not have been reported yet.

“As for safety tips, if your church is not checked every day, make sure that you do that. Have somebody go by, even after hours and make sure that someone is looking and checking because the sooner we get on this the better the chance is of our catching them,” Johnson said.