REPORT: Florida criminals accused of breaking into over 20 vehicles across North Carolina
Michael Lee Grace and Marcus Lavon Felder, of Pompano Beach, FL, have extensive criminal records involving burglary and theft
A Florida man previously convicted of vehicular break-in has been identified by law enforcement as responsible for breaking into at least eighteen vehicles across the state since May, with a minimum of $6,413.85 in property damage and $17,665.88 in stolen property/fraud.
Michael Lee Grace, 27, of Pompano Beach, FL is facing a total of over eighty charges of breaking and entering motor vehicles, larceny, fraudulently using stolen credit/debit cards, etc. across thirteen North Carolina counties including Chatham, Johnston, Person, and Wake, as well as extradition warrants for charges in South Carolina and Virginia.
A second Pompano Beach resident with a similar criminal record, Marcus Lavon Felder, 35, has been named as an uncharged co-conspirator of Grace's in a break-in investigated by the Appalachian State University Campus Police, and was also arrested in June on warrants from the Johnston County Sheriff's Office relating to three separate break-ins last October.
A third uncharged co-conspirator Larry D. Ware, III was named in the warrant obtained by the App State police, as well as by both the Burlington Police and the Greensboro Police in separate cases involving the use of stolen debit cards to fraudulently purchase gift cards at Walmart and Harris Teeter.
Marcus Lavon Felder
The earliest of the crimes described in this set of charges occurred last year, when Felder allegedly broke the windows of three vehicles in Johnston County on October 27, 2024 to steal items such as a pocket book, a wallet and cash, and a drivers license. Felder is also accused of conspiring with a "person unknown" to use the stolen drivers license to cash fraudulent checks at several Truist locations.
Although the three arrest warrants were issued on December 30, 2024, Felder remained at large for the next five months (when Grace is alleged to have conspired with him to break into a vehicle at App State). The warrants were returned served on June 25, after which Felder was released on a total of $30,000 secured bond.
Felder faces three counts of breaking and entering a motor vehicle, three counts of injury to personal property (for causing a total of over $600 of damage to the three vehicles' windows), two counts of misdemeanor larceny (for a total of $385 in property stolen), and one count of felony conspiracy to commit identity theft.
According to Florida records, the New Jersey-born Felder was charged at the age of 16 in Broward County with burglary, grand theft, and assaulting a police officer, to which he plead no contest and was sentenced to two years confinement.
Felder appears to have been imprisoned at least two subsequent times in Florida for burglary/theft related crimes in the counties of Palm Beach and Miami-Dade, ultimately spending over four-and-a-half years behind bars before being released most recently in April 2021.
According to a 2017 article in the Quad-City Times, Felder was charged in Iowa with one count of conspiracy to commit a non-forcible felony after police were allegedly informed by his girlfriend that they were part of a group known to the police for stealing women's purses and committing check fraud.
Michael Lee Grace
Grace also has a criminal history in Florida, including a conviction for burglary and grand theft for breaking into a sedan and stealing the owner's purse on January 16, 2020 in Broward County; Grace was identified as one of the two perpetrators after he was booked into jail on charges of home invasion with a firearm (later dropped by the prosecutor) and his fingerprints were matched to those found at the scene. (Grace's partner in crime appears to have gone unidentified.)
Grace was later convicted of charges including burglary, grand theft, and credit card fraud in Palm Beach County and was imprisoned for at least two years until his release this year on April 18.
A little over a month after his Florida prison release, Grace was back to his old habits up here in Moore County, smashing windows to break into two vehicles on May 30 and stealing $1,480 in cash, tech, etc. as well as $1,000 in fraudulently purchased gift cards, according to the Pinehurst Police Department.
On June 19, Grace allegedly "conspire[d] with Marcus Felder and Larry Ware" to break into a vehicle in Watauga County and steal a purse, cash, tech, etc. worth $500, according to the Appalachian State University Campus Police.
However, Grace was not charged with the two previous crimes until after he had already been identified and arrested; court records show the first warrant against Grace was obtained in Person County on June 25 for a break-in three days prior, accusing Grace of stealing a purse worth a total of $1,083.68 and fraudulently using the victim's debit card to purchase over $500 worth of gift cards.
It is not clear from the warrants how Grace was linked to these crimes, but at least three more warrants were filed in Alamance, Orange, and Sampson courts for break-ins and/or financial card theft prior to his arrest on July 30th by the Pittsboro Police Department.
Since the arrest, additional charges have been filed in Chatham, Cumberland, Guilford, Johnston, Moore, Rockingham, Surry, and Wake courts, filling in Grace's alleged break-in spree across the state.