Woman to be tried in storage burglary

A justice of the peace on Wednesday determined there is enough evidence to try a Carson City woman for the burglary of a storage unit.

Mary Louise Reasoner, 30, was bound over to Carson City District Court on one count of principal to burglary. According to investigators, Reasoner and her co-defendant Michael Pierson are suspected in at least 10 others.

Reasoner and Pierson, 41, were arrested Aug. 22 in the burglary of a storage unit on at Vinnie's Minis on South Sutro Terrace.

During Wednesday's preliminary hearing, Deputy District Attorney Laurie Trotter presented into evidence surveillance footage allegedly showing Reasoner and Pierson being dropped off Aug. 22 at the units about 4:44 a.m. and being picked back up at about 5:29 a.m. by Reasoner's mother Katherine Brisby. The video shows two people taking items from the area in which business owners later discovered a unit had been burglarized.

Brisby testified she'd been up all night with an ill relative when her daughter asked to use Brisby's car. Brisby said she declined the request, but instead agreed to drive Reasoner and Pierson to the unit and come back and get them.

She said when she returned about a half hour later, Reasoner didn't have any additional items with her, but Pierson put three large containers of items into Brisby's car.

Later that morning, when the owner noticed the early morning entries into the lot, he checked the surveillance footage and saw two people removing items from unit 84. He said he then called the woman to whom the unit was rented and she discovered her lock had been cut and items stolen.

Deputy Glenn Fair said when he viewed the digital video footage he immediately recognized the woman in the video as Reasoner.

He said once he said Reasoner's name, the owner of the business said it was Reasoner's access code used four times to enter or exit the gated area and Reasoner has a unit nearby.

When police contacted Reasoner and Pierson at Brisby's home in the afternoon, the two were allegedly found unloading stolen goods.

A date was not set for Reasoner to be arraigned in district court.

Pierson pleaded guilty to burglary and is currently in custody in California on a charge of parole violation.

Under Nevada law, a person convicted of burglary is guilty of a category B felony and can be sentenced to one to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

• Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.