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Sterling
A 36-year old Lake Charles resident and recent Medical Center patient was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury on Aug. 2, alleging the state jail felony charge of unauthorized use of a vehicle, a police officer’s truck in particular.
According to the probable cause affidavit for April Sterling’s arrest, at approximately 9 p.m. on March 30, Carlos Barboza discovered his father’s GMC truck was missing from the parking lot of Saltgrass Steak House, and called his father Thomas Barboza, who is a Port Arthur Police Department detective.
After attempting to locate the vehicle, Det. Barboza reported the automobile stolen, stating that it was possibly taken by the culprit using the spare key left in the truck.
Meanwhile, Barboza discovered that Port Arthur PD had responded to several calls that evening of the vehicle theft, relating to April Sterling, a recent patient at The Medical Center of Southeast Texas Emergency Room. The last call, reported to PAPD around 8 p.m., led Detective Barboza to check the surveillance cameras of a hotel near Saltgrass, on which he discovered a person in a hospital gown walking around the front of his truck just before seeing his auto driving away.
The next night, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s deputies stopped the stolen truck, in which Sterling was a passenger. The driver reportedly gave a voluntary statement to a detective with Calcasieu Parish, stating that Sterling showed up to meet him in the truck and told him she borrowed it from a friend.
The truck was returned to Det. Barboza.