The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

November 3, 2009

Wrong pants excuse didn't stop arrest

By Dan Nienaber

MANKATO — A man who was arrested and whose house was searched as investigators looked for stolen guns has been arrested again because police suspect he was selling marijuana downtown.

Andre Thomas Buie, 24, was outside the Mankato Place mall at about 2 a.m. Sunday when he was recognized by a police officer, who called dispatchers and asked if Buie had any warrants for his arrest. He approached Buie after the dispatcher said there was a warrant for Buie’s arrest out of Ramsey County.

When asked if he had any weapons, Buie responded by saying he’d put on his roommate’s pants before going downtown.

That response made sense after the officer checked one of Buie’s front pants pockets and reported finding five small bags of a green leafy substance that tested positive for marijuana. Just under $100 in cash also was found and confiscated, the criminal complaint said.

Buie appeared in court Tuesday for a felony charge of selling marijuana.

He had been released from jail Sept. 28 after posting a bond for $4,000 bail. He had been arrested at his Mankato residence Sept. 23 while the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Department was investigating the theft of guns from a federally licensed gun dealer in Lake Crystal.

Twenty-one handguns and rifles were stolen and one of the handguns was found at Buie’s residence, that criminal complaint said. He was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm because he had been convicted of a child neglect crime in Ramsey County in March.

Two 18-year-old Lake Crystal men, Brandon Dewaine Thornburg-Spear and Michael Ryan Roalson, were charged with stealing the guns. They had been invited to the house where the guns were being stored Sept. 18 and the brother of the gun dealer had shown the weapons to them, the criminal complaint said.

They allegedly told investigators most of the guns had been taken to a residence in the Eastwood Manor mobile home court in Mankato. Nothing was found when that residence was searched.

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