On March 27, 2017, Gary Howes of 765 Sylvan Dr. Baton Rouge, LA., age 57, pled guilty to Simple Burglary. Howes was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Phil Maples, and presiding over this matter was the Honorable Judge Thomas Kliebert. This guilty plea was the result of a plea agreement with prosecutors following the 2014 burglary of an Ascension Parish business. 

          On November 25, 2014, officers with the Gonzales Police Department responded to a report of a burglary of the Red Carpet Salon in Gonzales. Investigators were able to obtain surveillance video and observed a white male subject driving a dark colored SUV parking in front of the business. Surveillance video showed the subject exit his vehicle with his face masked, and some sort of object in hand. The subject then broke the front glass of the business and made his way into the business. The subject went straight to the cash register where he took approximately $3.00 in cash. The subject then exited the business and fled the area.  

          A short time later, Investigators made contact with Detectives from the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office who had arrested a white male subject identified as Gary Howes for multiple burglaries in the Covington area. St. Tammany Parish Detectives believed that Howes was burglarizing businesses in local strip malls along the I-10 and I-12 corridor. Through the course of an in depth investigation, Gonzales Police Department Investigators were able to determine that the individual in the Gonzales burglary matched the description of the suspect in the St. Tammany Parish Burglaries. The individual in all of the burglaries was a white male, wore the same or similar clothing, used the same types of vehicles, and gained entry into the businesses by breaking the front glass of the businesses. In all of the burglaries, the suspect would gain entry, go straight to the cash register where he would take whatever cash was available, and flee the area. Howes was identified as the suspect in the St. Tammany Parish Burglaries after detectives were able to catch a glimpse of the suspect vehicle’s license plate which was registered to Howes. Howes is also suspected of burglarizing several businesses in the Baton Rouge and Livingston Parish areas. Howes, who was serving a prison sentence in the Dixon Correctional Institute, was transported to the Ascension Parish Jail where he was booked on the charges related to the burglary of the Red Carpet Salon in November of 2016. 

          Upon entering a guilty plea to the above charge, as per the plea agreement with prosecutors, Judge Kliebert ordered that Howes be committed to the Louisiana Department of Corrections for a period of 10 years with credit for time served.