Cracked Safe Helps Crack Case Of Stolen Motorcycle

By Mike Perleberg Donald B. Sinnett, also known as Donald Seale. Photo by Butler County, Ohio Sheriff's Office. (Dearborn County, Ind.) - A man very familiar to southeastern Indiana law enforcement has been charged with burglary in Dearborn County. Donald Sinnett, Jr., also known as Donald Seale, is in jail in Butler County, Ohio as a suspect in a burglary there. Now, authorities in Indiana are awaiting his extradition to face the new charges of Burglary (level 5 felony) and Theft (level 6 felony) filed April 12 in Dearborn County Circuit Court. According to a press release from Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Lynn Deddens, deputies responded to a report of a burglary at a home on North Dearborn Road on April 4. A barn had been broken into and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle stored inside had been taken, along with other miscellaneous items. No suspect was identified. On April 7, deputies got a call from the same residence for another reported burglary. "At this time, the property owner noticed that parts pertaining to the Harley Davidson, which was stolen a few days earlier were piled up as if they were going to be taken. Deputies believed that the individuals who broke into the barn had been staging items and planned to take them, when something interrupted their acts," Deddens said in the news release. That same day, deputies also responded to a burglary at another residence located less than a mile away from where the motorcycle was taken. A break in the case came on April 9. The prosecutor says the Dearborn County Sheriff's Department arrested a female on a warrant for Possession of Methamphetamine. As deputies were speaking to the female, they learned that Donald Sinnett was her boyfriend. During questioning at the jail, the female told investigators how Sinnett brought a motorcycle to her apartment in West Harrison. She described it as being red/maroon and silver in color, similar to the one taken from North Dearborn Road on April 4. A week later, detectives from the Dearborn County Special Crimes Unit served a search warrant for that apartment on South State Street. In addition to drug paraphernalia, investigators located a safe. After receiving a separate search warrant for the safe, detectives found inside a check book beloning to Sinnett and the registration for the stolen motorcycle. Sinnett, 34, of Milan, had been arrested less than two weeks before the alleged motorcycle theft. He was jailed in Franklin County on March 24 after police found him with a substance believed to be methamphetamine during a traffic stop near Brookville Elementary School. He had been released after posting a $5,000 bond soon afterwards. His criminal past extends even further back. According to Indiana Department of Corrections records, Sinnett was sentenced to four years in prison in 2008 after being convicted of Dealing in Cocaine or a Narcotic Drug (class B felony) in Dearborn County. He had been released last August. In August of 2007, he was sentenced to 12 years for a Franklin County conviction for Possession of Cocaine or a Narcotic Drug (class B felony), Resisting Law Enforcement (class D felony), Reckless Driving (class B misdemeanor), and Possession of Paraphernalia (class B misdemeanor). Earlier that year, he was convicted of Dealing in Cocaine or a Narcotic Drug (class B felony). RELATED STORIES: Meth Arrest Made Near Brookville School