Howard pleads guilty, gets 10 years

By Cassandra Mickens

The Selma Times-Journal

Perhaps better known as Selma’s own “buggy burglar,” Robert James “Hoolio” Howard, 36, received 10-year prison sentence in Circuit Judge Marvin Wiggins’ courtroom Monday.

A Selma resident, Howard pled guilty on a third-degree burglary charge stemming from a January 2005 incident, said District Attorney Michael Jackson.

According to a police report, Howard and alleged partner Jim “Bustee” Steele – “two suspicious black males” – were spotted entering a Bienville Street residence by neighborhood witness Berdell Spears. The report stated that Spears saw Steele “pushing a buggy back and forth up and down the street.”

Spears went on to say that a few minutes later he saw Steele push the buggy up to the front door of the Bienville residence and “saw a taller black male (Howard) come to the door with something in his hands covered up with a sheet.”

After placing the covered item in the buggy, Howard and Steele pushed down Royal Street.

Officers dispatched to the scene later discovered the duo walking south on Mabry Street. When the pair realized they were busted, Howard ran while Steele was detained. Officers later unveiled the covered item in the buggy – an air conditioning unit – and submitted it as case evidence. The stolen items were eventually returned to their rightful owners.

Said Jackson, “The days of breaking into people’s house and businesses have ended for the ‘buggy burglar.'”