Makaylah Riffle (Photo courtesy of Baxter County Sheriff’s Office)
A second woman involved in a “Thelma and Louise” type joy ride through Arkansas in a stolen pickup truck appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court on December 2.
Twenty-eight-year-old Makaylah McKanna Riffle pled guilty to the charges against her and was sentenced to four years in prison.
The other woman involved, 22-year-old Kalei Britt, entered a guilty plea in July to charges of theft by receiving and was put on probation for six years.
On April 9, the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office received word from the Rector Police Department in far east Arkansas that a stolen 2014 Dodge Ram pickup was possibly headed for a residence located on Baxter County Road 916.
After receiving the information from the Rector Police Department, multiple Baxter County sheriff’s deputies set up surveillance at spots where the truck could be spotted and stopped as it headed toward the residence on County Road 916.
A deputy spotted a 2014 white Dodge Ram pickup matching the description of the vehicle stolen in Rector turning onto County Road 11. The deputy got behind the suspect vehicle which was reported to have made a sharp turn into Hummingbird Lane.
Hummingbird Lane is described as a short road that dead ends in the driveway of a residence.
The vehicle stopped in the driveway almost at the same time the deputy got a return on a license check he had run.
The report came back showing that the tag displayed on the truck actually belonged on a black Jeep.
According to the probable cause affidavit, a report on the truck and the two females inside matched information provided by the Rector Police Department.
Both women were reported to have active arrest warrants as parole absconders. They were taken into custody, and arrangements were made to get the truck back to its rightful owner.
During an interview at the sheriff’s office, Riffle is alleged to have admitted stealing the truck from a car lot in Rector and driving it to various locations in the state from April 2 until the two women were located and taken into custody April 9.
Riffle told investigators she had picked Britt up in the truck but refused say where. “I had rather not answer that,” she is reported to have said.
Britt admitted to investigators she had been traveling with Riffle, but denied knowing the truck was stolen.
The women admitted they had gotten text messages from the Rector Police Department telling them to return the truck.
The value of the stolen truck has been estimated at $15,000.
Riffle was sentenced to five years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections in mid-November on charges related to the incident in Clay County.
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