Neighbors help track burglary suspect

FRUITPORT TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - A Fruitport Township resident returned home Thursday afternoon to find two alleged burglars had rummaged through her house.

The incident happened around 3 p.m. in the 4900 block of S. Sheridan Drive at 19-year-old Julie Larson's home.

"We keep everything locked, but that didn't stop them," said Larson.

She said when she pulled in her driveway after finishing classes at Muskegon Community College, at first she didnt think anything of the strange man walking down her family's driveway.  

"He waved at me and I just thought he was trying to sell something," said Larson.  She said she thought something might be up when she noticed the man ran into some nearby woods.  

She said her guard was up when she entered the house -- only to hear someone inside.

"I started screaming and yelling because I didn't know how to react," said Larson. She then showed 24 Hour News 8 where the two suspects had broken the front door to get in.  

Rooms had been ransacked and valuables were missing, police said.

Larson said the man, 49-year-old Milton Marshall, tried to escape out a back sliding glass door but there was a piece of wood in the way and the door wouldn't open.  

"I was just screaming and yelling and he ran around me and I grabbed the house phone and called 911," said Larson.

She ran to the end of her driveway waving her arms, trying to get anyone's attention to help her stop the fleeing suspect.

"I was just mad and I didn't want him to take anything of ours and not get caught. I just wanted to make sure the police found him," said Larson.

Luckily, Felicia Lynn and Savannah Olmsted happened to be pulling out of Lynn's driveway across the street.

"I'm like, 'Julie, what's wrong? what's going on?' And she said, 'He broke into my house! Can you just follow him please? Just follow him!'" said Lynn. "I was like, 'Yes I will follow him. Are you on the phone with the cops? And if not you need to call them right now.'"

"She's my neighbor," said Lynn when asked why she wanted to help. "I know her. I went to school with her. We rode the bus together. She was home alone I don't know what I would do. I would be scared."

Both Lynn and Olmstead said they hope someone would help them if they were in a similar situation.  

The two women, in their early 20s, said they got on the road and drove after Marshall, who they said was jogging slowly, then walking, down Sheridan away from the scene of the alleged crime.

"I threw my phone at [Lynn] I said, 'Take a picture just in case he runs. Take a picture,'" said Olmsted. "And she took a picture and we passed him and we stopped at the stop sign and we waited and we waited."

They used the vehicle to block the street, they said, so Marshall couldn't run away.  But before he could reach them, two or three cars full of teen guys came to their aid -- along with a police officer

"He was getting really close to us," said Olmsted. "We're like, 'Uou just need to stop and wait for the cops,' and he was going to keep walking and then were like, 'Oh, the cops were right there,' and he stopped and waited for the cops."

"He knew he got caught," said Lynn. "There was nothing he could do. He wasn't going to get past us. I wasn't going to allow that. That wasn't going to happen."

Olmsted said she's just glad she could help.

"He could have just gotten away and they could have been roaming around the neighborhood like it was no big deal and that's not good at all," said Olmsted.

Alleged accomplice Todd Lemieux was tracked down by a police K-9 unit, and officers from the Norton Shores Police Department, Roosevelt Park Police Department, Muskegon County Sheriff's Office and the Michigan State Police. Authorities followed his footprints in the snow to an area near Cline Road and S. Walker Road and took him into custody.

Both suspects have multiple prior felony convictions and had been released from prison recently.

Lemieux was convicted of safe breaking and two separate breaking and entering offenses in 1990 and 1994. According to police, he was on parole at the time of the burglar at Larson's house.

Marshall also has three previous felony convictions. In 1984, he damaged property at 14th circuit court of Muskegon. He was convicted of malicious destruction of a building in 1989 and then convicted of arson in 1992.   

Since both men are habitual offenders, they could now face life in prison if convicted.   

When Lemieux was formally charged, he pleaded not guilty and perfunctorily responded to Magistrate John Wiewiora's questions.  He is held on $50,000 bond.  

Marshall started his arraignment by saying, "What's up dog," to Wiewora. Then when the Magistrate asked how he wanted to plea, Marshall responded, "Guilty." Wiewora entered in a guilty plea on Marshall's behalf until the suspect could talk to an attorney.  

Marshall then proceeded to ask the magistrate, "Is there any way possible that I could, um you know, I get like even if it is my fifth offense as