Photo: Saira Howell
A string of 16 burglaries since late April has plagued the Ponderosa and Camp Nelson Areas in Tulare County.
As detectives pieced information together and the Forensic Investigation Unit analyzed physical evidence in an effort to find their suspect, Then someone called the Tulare County Sheriffs on June 18th.
Floyd Martin
It was almost midnight and the caller was reporting a suspicious vehicle lurking near a vacant home in Ponderosa.
Sheriff Deputies found the described vehicle and stopped it near Cedar Slope. When the driver, identified as 34-year old Visalia man Floyd Martin, was asked to step out of the vehicle, his passenger, 35-year old Saira Howell also of Visalia, jumped into the vacant driver’s seat and took off.
Deputies stopped the vehicle pursuit near Springville for safety concerns due to Howell’s reckless driving.
Within a few hours Howell was located and apprehended in Visalia at a residence on the 1800 Block of North Tipton Street.
Law enforcement searched that home, along with two others in Exeter and Camp Nelson. Then they arrested Martin and Howell in connection to the 16 burglaries reported since late April. These cover the areas of Mountain Communities of Camp Nelson, Alpine Village, Sequoia Crest, Ponderosa, and Cedar Slope.
The pair await trial in Tulare County’s Pre-Trial Facility. Meanwhile, authorities are trying to return the stolen property to the rightful owners.
