Bad checks, bad IDs, and bad deals spanning East Texas and Arkansas have put a couple behind bars. Aaron Todd Davis, 35, and Jessica Lindsay Davis, 38, have been charged with livestock theft, forgery, and fraud after investigations by the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the Arkansas Agriculture Department.
The crime spree started in Kirbyville, Texas, in late March when, according to authorities, the couple purchased six calves for a total of $3,012.13 using false identification and a fraudulent check. The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association launched an investigation, but before it was complete, the suspects reportedly paid the victim directly and the case was closed.
In early April, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association Special Ranger Brent Mast received a call from an auction market in East Texas about a returned check. The market’s office manager told Mast a couple, first-time buyers, wrote the check in the amount of $5,151.55 for the purchase of three heifer yearlings and two bulls. During the investigation, Mast determined the check was a forgery and believed that Aaron Davis had used a fake identification card. Authorities said that Davis later admitted he’d purchased the temporary driver’s license on the dark web.
About the same time, the Davises were accused of being involved in a similar crime in Calvert, Texas, investigated by Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association Special Ranger Hal Dumas. Once they were positively identified by Dumas, they paid restitution to the victim, and the case was closed, the association said.
Less than two weeks later, Billy Black, chief of the Law Enforcement Division of the Arkansas Depart of Agriculture reached out to association for assistance identifying two people who had bought and sold cattle at three sale barns in Arkansas using what was believed to be fraudulent identification and fraudulent checks.
After Black described the couple, along with the vehicle and trailer used in his cases, Mast advised him that the suspects matched the description of Aaron and Jessica Davis. Surveillance footage confirmed it.
During interviews with Mast and fellow Special Ranger Larry Hand, both Aaron and Jessica Davis confessed, authorities said. The two are charged with theft of livestock, forgery, and theft of identity in Houston County, Texas, and theft of livestock in Arkansas.
