Jail inmates suspected of using other inmates' IDs to make phone calls

Three Johnson County Jail inmates were arrested over the weekend on suspicion of making dozens of jailhouse phone calls using the personal identification numbers belonging to other inmates, racking up more than $50 in calling charges.

Leslie Kittreal Stokes Jr., 19, of Cedar Rapids, and Dantrel Lavelle Ware, 19, of Iowa City, were arrested Saturday on charges of identity theft after authorities said they were caught on surveillance video using the only phone in the cell block at the same time the victim's account was accessed, according to a criminal complaint.

Both Stokes and Ware obtained the victim's identification numbers – used to control inmates' commissary and phone account – without that person's permission or knowledge, the complaint states.

Stokes is accused of using an inmate's ID number to make 19 phone calls in two days, according to investigators.  Ware is accused of using an inmate's ID number to make 18 phone calls in two days, investigators reported.

Stokes and Ware are accused of making the phone calls in the middle of last week, totaling $40 to $50 in charges, according to the complaint.

Marzell Lavell Hicks, 35, of Chicago, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of identity theft after deputies say he used another inmate's ID number on Friday to make three phone calls worth $9.36, according to a criminal complaint.

The victim said he never gave Hicks permission to use his account, deputies reported. It's unclear whether Hicks is accused of working with Stokes and Ware.

All three of the suspects are still being held at the Johnson County Jail.

Ware was in jail after police arrested him in April on suspicion of participating in an armed robbery at the Creekside Market in Iowa City on Feb. 22. Ware, one of three teens arrested in connection with the case, is accused of entering the store and standing in as a decoy so another suspect could sneak up on the clerk.

The clerk was injured in the robbery, and the suspects got away with several hundred dollars in cash, according to police. He was being held in lieu of $30,000 on charges of first-degree robbery, going armed with intent and assault with a dangerous weapon.

The new identity theft charge adds $2,500 to his bond.

Stokes, who was in jail serving a year sentence following a conviction of assault and use of a weapon, is being held additionally on an $8,100 bond.

Hicks, who was being held on charges of second degree theft and burglary, is now being held in lieu of a $25,500 bond.