Sometimes you get what you ask for

On April 12, 2016 Connor Chandler left work and came home to where he lived with his parents in Spokane Valley. He was driving his 1983 Toyota pickup that had been in the family since his father bought the truck 33 years earlier. Connor parked and locked the truck as he always did, but it was stolen that night. They reported the theft to law enforcement and Connor took to social media to get word out about his stolen truck.

Connor received a message on his social media on April 14, 2016 that his truck had been spotted in Chewelah loaded on a trailer that was pulled by a blue Chevy truck. The truck and trailer was headed northbound.

Det. Steve White of the WSP Auto Theft Task Force was assigned the case. He went to several gas stations along 395 and was able to recover video footage from three stations of a truck heading north pulling a trailer with the Connor’s truck in it. Det. White also located surveillance of the same truck with the empty trailer heading south. His investigation determined that the driver of the truck pulling the trailer with Connor’s truck on it was Jack Essman and that that there was a passenger in the truck by the name of Teri Trower aka Teri Christensen.

Det. White interviewed Essman and Trower and was told that they had hauled a Toyota truck to Stevens County to have engine repairs performed by a friend of Trower’s. He was told that when they got to their destination. They learned that the person that was to do the work was in prison, so they pulled the truck back to Elk, WA and put the truck back in Trower’s garage.

On April 27, 2016 law enforcement was invited to Teri Trower’s residence to look at a truck she had claimed was the one they took to Stevens County and brought back. The truck in her garage was not Connor’s truck; it was 10 years newer and had been freshly painted to make it look like it.

Both Trower and Essman were charged with Possession of Stolen Property and the case was assigned to Deputy Prosecutor Lech Radzimski. Both Trower and Essman refused to assist in returning the truck and both demanded a separate jury trial. The office accommodated that demand. On July 13, 2016 Teri Trower’s case was tried before a jury. On July 14, 2016 the jury convicted her of being in possession of the Chandler’s stolen truck. She was sentenced to 12 months for this crime.

On August 9, 2016 Jack Essman was tried and found guilty by a separate jury for the same offense. His sentencing is scheduled for August 23, 2016.