Dare County, N.C. – A couple from Hampton has been charged in the theft of a gun from a truck in Frisco that was later used in a shooting in Hampton, Va.
Dare County Sheriff’s Investigators first learned on May 25th that a gun used in the Hampton shooting may have been stolen from Hatteras Island. At the time there was no report of a gun stolen there, but the next day investigators received a report from a Haw River, North Carolina man reporting that his vehicle had been broken into while he was on vacation on the island.
The victim reported that he had not noticed his 9mm handgun missing from the break-in until he returned home.
Dare Sheriff’s Investigators traveled to Hampton to interview the people involved in the shooting in that city, and submitted evidence to a grand jury who later indicted the couple.
The pair were reported as fugitives since they lived out of state, and were later picked up by Virginia authorities.
19-year-old Caleb Sawyer Barnes, of Williamsburg, faces a charge Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon in Hampton. He is awaiting extradition to North Carolina on the gun theft charges.
23-year-old Autumn Lauren Smith was returned to Dare County on October 15th and charged with Aid and Abet Breaking and Entering of a Motor Vehicle and Aid and Abet Larceny of a Firearm. She was committed to the Dare County Detention Center in lieu of $500 bond.
