Police arrested a Little Rock teen earlier this week in a string of 2018 vehicle break-ins reported in Maumelle, according to a report.
Little Rock police arrested Brian Welch, 17, about 11 p.m. Tuesday on 12 felony charges and two misdemeanor counts stemming from the 2018 thefts, including nine breaking-or-entering charges and four theft-by-receiving charges, the report said.
Charges were not filed until this week, despite the incidents occurring in October 2018. Welch, who has a criminal history, will be tried as an adult, according to police records.
Capt. David Collins, spokesman for the Maumelle Police Department, did not explain why the charges had not been filed against Welch earlier.
Maumelle City Attorney Melissa Krebs said city authorities were only made aware of the outstanding warrant after Welch was arrested by Little Rock police on Tuesday.
"They saw that we had a warrant pending -- an active warrant on him," Krebs said. "So that's why charges were brought, because they notified us that we still had the active warrant."
On October 11, 2018, Maumelle police discovered two vehicles that appeared to have been recently burglarized on Deauville Drive just after 2 a.m., according to an incident report.
One of the investigating officers then saw a Dodge Charger speeding onto Calais Drive, the report said.
An officer chased the vehicle until it left the roadway where White Oak Crossing ends, and the occupant left the vehicle and evaded police, according to the report.
The Charger, which was later determined to be totaled, was stolen from Little Rock and contained a stolen HK VP9 handgun, a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9mm handgun, a stolen Amazon Fire tablet, a stolen driver's license and a stolen insurance card, the report said.
Detectives traced the stolen vehicle back to Welch because he left his phone with an active Instagram account in the car, according to the report.
Several other break-ins occurred along Deauville Drive and Crystal Mountain Lane at that time, involving nine other vehicles. These included the theft of a third firearm, a Kel-Tec .380 P-3AT handgun, a police report said.
The value of the stolen items, including the firearms and vehicle, amount to $24,500, according to the report.
When he was 16, Welch was arrested by North Little Rock police on Nov. 11, 2018, after officers responding to a burglary complaint found him standing outside a residence with two stolen AR-15 rifles, according to testimony in that case.
Prosecutors chose to try Welch as an adult in that case. He eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison in June 2019; he was eligible for parole in April 2020, according to court records.
Welch also had been charged as an adult in a July 2016 armed robbery when he was 13 years old, but an agreement with prosecutors moved the case to juvenile court.
After spending 11½ months in the custody of the state Division of Youth Services, he was released on probation in July 2018, according to court records.
Information for this article was contributed by John Lynch of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 05/09/2020