She allegedly misled sheriff’s investigators about her husband’s whereabouts
The local sheriff’s office has filed obstruction charges against an Anson County woman for misleading investigators about her husband’s role in a deadly raid on a narcotics stash house in Green Level last year.
According to the office of Alamance County’s sheriff, Santana Monique Stewart was arrested in Durham on March 30 for her alleged deceptions on behalf of her husband – Steven Alexander Stewart, Jr.
The sheriff’s office originally zeroed in on Steven Stewart last April after he reportedly mounted an armed incursion on a suspected cartel stash house at 1051 Wyatt Road in Green Level. The Wadesboro resident was joined in this brazen assault by his wife’s brother, Barney Dale Harris, a popular teacher and coach who at the time worked at a charter school in Monroe.
During their misguided adventure, the pair reportedly encountered 18-year-old Alonzo Beltran Lara, who had inhabited the purported stash house with his brother Juan. The teenager was eventually bound and shot execution style and would eventually succumb to his injuries at an area hospital.
Meanwhile, a gun battle erupted when Juan Lara apparently returned home to find the intruders inside his residence. By the time that the smoke cleared, more than 30 shell casings littered the scene and Harris lay dead from a gunshot wound that he received in spite of the tactical vest he had donned for the occasion.
The office of Alamance County’s sheriff ultimately charged Steven Stewart with first-degree murder and first-degree burglary for his alleged role in this double-homicide. The agency eventually caught up with the 33-year-old black male notwithstanding his wife’s alleged efforts to throw its investigators off her husband’s trail.
According to an arrest warrant that the sheriff’s office has since issued for Santana Stewart, the 43-year-old black female repeatedly gave the agency’s investigator’s false information during the course of their inquiry.
The warrant states that Santana Stewart falsely claimed to have spent the night of the homicides in her home at 304 Old Lilesville Road in Wadesboro. She also assured investigators that she knew nothing about her husband’s whereabouts despite having reportedly picked him up “immediately after the homicides.” The warrant goes on to accuse Santana Stewart of deleting incriminating text messages that she and her husband exchanged that same night.
The sheriff’s office has charged Stewart with one felony count of obstruction of justice for her alleged misinformation in this case. She was jailed in Durham County immediately after her arrest.
Here’s The Alamance News original account from April 2021 of the shootout that left two dead: https://alamancenews.com/sheriff-teacher-cartel-member-killed-in-attempted-narcotics-burglary/
