OWENS TWP- A Cook teenager is facing felony charges after allegedly taking a vehicle without permission from a home in Owens Township on the morning of Saturday, March 22.
According to a criminal complaint filed in St. Louis County District Court, 19-year-old Ayden Jack Weatherton, of Cook, has been charged with felony motor vehicle theft after authorities say he took a 2015 Chevrolet Impala from a residence without the owner’s consent.
The vehicle’s owners, Penny and Karl Weatherton, told deputies they had allowed Ayden to stay at their home for a few days. But when they woke up on the morning of March 22, both Ayden and their car were gone. They confirmed to law enforcement that no one had given Ayden permission to drive the vehicle, and that they both wanted him held accountable.
Roughly 90 minutes later, at 9:17 a.m., a sheriff’s deputy spotted the missing vehicle near the Nichols Town Hall in Mt. Iron. After following it, the deputy initiated a traffic stop near the intersection of U.S. Hwy. 53 and Shady Pines Drive in Wuori Township. The driver was identified as Ayden Weatherton and was taken into custody without incident.
Weatherton is currently being held in St. Louis County Jail with bail set at $18,000. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.
Domestic assault charge
While Weatherton’s driver’s license indicates a Cook address, he had apparently been living in Mt. Iron, according to a deputy’s report filed March 16 in conjunction with a charge of fear-inducing domestic assault.
Weatherton had reportedly been staying at the home of his girlfriend and her parents in Mt. Iron for over a year, and the young couple were parents to a four-week-old child born on Feb. 13. Weatherton called dispatchers to report that the infant’s grandparents had taken him out of the home, saying that the baby’s doctor had said to not take the premature infant out of the home until he was six weeks old.
During the initial response to the residence, officers confirmed that the child’s grandparents “wanted Ayden out of the house.” The grandmother alleged that Weatherton had been mean and verbally abusive to her daughter, and that she was worried he might be abusive to the baby. The deputy advised the grandmother that they would have to file eviction paperwork, then spoke with Weatherton and the grandmother and determined that they did not need any further assistance at that time.
A short while later, Weatherton contacted the deputy directly saying that “they were trying to take his son,” according to the report. A third party called a dispatcher to report that Weatherton was aggravated and had punched and damaged doors and had locked himself in a basement room with the baby. After the deputy made contact with Weatherton, the baby’s mother was able to retrieve the infant, but it took longer to coax Weatherton upstairs, where he was taken into custody for “fear-based domestic assault” and taken to the jail in Virginia.
Under Minnesota’s domestic assault law, committing an act with the intent to cause fear of immediate bodily harm to a family or household member is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both.
Weatherton is scheduled for pre-trial hearings on both changes on Monday, April 7 in St. Louis County District Court in Virginia.