A former manager of the Dairy Queen who allegedly stole thousands of dollars from the business and then staged the scene to make it look like a break-in earlier this year was sentenced in DeKalb County Criminal Court Monday, December 7.
21 year old Rebecca Dawn Duffield entered a guilty plea to a charge of theft of property over $1,000 and received a two year sentence but has been granted judicial diversion. She will be on supervised probation by TDOC. A vandalism charge against her has been dismissed. She will make restitution to the Dairy Queen in the amount of $380.27.
Duffield and her boyfriend, 20 year old James Anthony Skinner were co-indicted by the grand jury on November 23 for theft over $1,000 and vandalism under $500. Skinner’s case remains pending in court.
According to Smithville Police, Duffield and Skinner were inside the Dairy Queen on Sunday night May 3 cleaning up before closing when they stole more than $6,800 from the safe and then ransacked the office. Before they drove away in a blue Dodge Durango, Skinner was observed by a witness breaking out a glass in the drive through window apparently to give the impression that someone had broken into the business. The witness notified police and Officer Joey Myers responded to the scene at around 11:55 p.m.
Upon further investigation, Captain Steven Leffew said that the Durango was found parked at a residence on Short Mountain Highway and that both Skinner and Duffield were inside the home. Lieutenant Matt Holmes was informed that Duffield had just closed up the Dairy Queen and left moments prior to the incident. Lt. Holmes went to the residence and requested permission to search both the home and the Durango where evidence was collected. Police recovered over $6,800 which was returned to the owners of the Dairy Queen.
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