Girl Scout Cookie Theft May Net Felon More Time

MARCH 15--The theft of Girl Scout cookies from a fellow halfway house resident could land an Iowa felon back in prison, according to federal court records.

Terrell Lillybridge, 30, is scheduled for a hearing tomorrow morning in U.S. District Court in Davenport after probation officials last week filed a petition seeking to have his supervised release revoked. Lillybridge has been locked up in advance of the revocation hearing.

Lillybridge was sentenced in November 2007 to 57 months in prison following his conviction on a felony charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Lillybridge was arrested earlier that year after cops found a loaded “Tech 9mm semiautomatic assault gun” inside a Buick he was driving.

Shortly before his collar, Lillybridge was involved in a gun battle that left him with a bullet wound to the abdomen (which apparently caused him to crash his vehicle). He was charged as a “felon in possession” due to a prior narcotics conviction for which he was sentenced to five years in state prison.

After leaving the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas in November 2010, Lillybridge checked into a halfway house for six months. He was freed in late-May, and immediately began serving a two-year probationary term. But after a falling out with his live-in girlfriend, Lillybridge--who was residing in the woman’s home and relying on her for transportation--signed a waiver to enter a Davenport halfway house “on a non-violation status.”

It was during Lillybridge’s voluntary return to the federal halfway house that he ran into his recent cookie trouble.

According to the revocation petition sworn by U.S. Probation Officer Eric Hermes, on February 25 Lillybridge “was found to have stolen another residents’ Girl Scout cookies, which was confirmed by a surveillance camera” at the facility. He was also accused of failing to report his termination from his job at a factory in neighboring Moline, Illinois.

The petition does not detail the amount of Girl Scout cookies stolen by Lillybridge (nor whether the allegedly pilfered treats were, for example, the popular Thin Mints or the superior Samoas).

Since Lillybridge still has about 18 months to serve on probation, Judge John Jarvey could direct him to spend some portion of that term in federal prison. (3 pages)