Home Crime Rockingham man accused of stealing from Richmond County Schools maintenance department

Rockingham man accused of stealing from Richmond County Schools maintenance department

ROCKINGHAM — A man with felony convictions in five counties is facing new charges from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies received a call March 22 about a break-in at a building on Sixth Street in East Rockingham — the Maintenance Department for Richmond County Schools — according to a press release from the sheriff’s office.

Investigators say the building had been broken into the previous weekend and “a list of welding equipment and assorted tools were stolen.”

Deputies arrested 34-year-old James Woodrow Lynch II, of Caroline Street in Rockingham, Tuesday and charged him one felony count each of breaking and entering and larceny after breaking and entering, as well as a misdemeanor count of injury to real property.

He was booked into the Richmond County Jail under a $10,000 secured bond. He is scheduled to appear in court May 13.

Online court records show Lynch has a pending charge of misdemeanor marijuana possession in Richmond County with a court date of April 29, as well as multiple infractions from the N.C. State Highway Patrol in Anson County.

Records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction show Lynch has a record of misdemeanor and felony convictions across the state, dating back to 2004.

In June 2004, Lynch was convicted on four counts of misdemeanor larceny in Pender County. His probation was revoked in October the same year when he was convicted of his first felony — breaking and entering motor vehicles — and he spent more than two months behind bars.

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His next convictions were in Richmond County: possession of a Schedule II controlled substance (2006); two counts of felony larceny (2010).

The following year, Lynch was convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon and eight counts of possession of stolen goods in Richmond County.

In 2013, while serving time, Lynch was convicted in Moore County of possession of a firearm by a felon and selling both a Schedule II and Schedule III controlled substance.

He spent about three years in prison on all those convictions.

Within three months of his release in December of 2014, Lynch was charged and convicted in October 2015 of felony breaking and entering and larceny in New Hanover County, which led to a six-month incarceration.

Lynch’s most recent conviction was in 2018 for possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a Schedule I controlled substance in Onlsow County, resulting in an 11-month prison stay.

All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

 



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