Accused Had Reportedly Ferried The Aircraft To An Interested Buyer

Police in Elizabethton, TN have gotten a break in a 2009 case in which a man allegedly stole a $250,000 helicopter on the pretense of showing it to an interested buyer.

Benjamin Barrick

Benjamin Barrick is accused if taking a helicopter belonging to Ray Reason, a towing service operator in Bladen County, NC, to show it to a prospective buyer in South Carolina. But instead, the aircraft turned up in Elizabethton, TN, where Barrick lives.

Television station WECT in Wilmington, NC reports that Barrick was arrested by the Carter County, TN, Sheriff's department on Tuesday. He will be extradited to Bladen County for trial. The Elizabethton, TN Star newspaper reports that Barrick had entered a "best interest" plea earlier this year on a murder-for-hire charge, and was sentenced to 15 years probation.

In 2004, Barrick ... then a Sheriff's deputy with the Franklin County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina ... was the pilot of a helicopter which went down near Louisburg, NC, resulting in the fatal injury of fellow deputy Ted Horton. ANN reported that it was determined Barrick did not hold a helicopter rating at the time of the accident.

(Image Source Carter County, TN, Sheriff)

FMI: www.nccourts.org/County/Bladen/Default.asp