Man arrested after break-ins at Rowan County churches

SALISBURY, N.C. — A suspect who was arrested during a traffic stop earlier this month in Rowan County is accused of stealing thousands of dollars worth of musical equipment from churches in the area, according to the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office says on Aug. 7, deputies stopped a vehicle on Interstate 85 and found two people inside, 21-year-old Mykal David Charter and 20-year-old Lamaya McClain.

Charter and McClain were both wanted out of Virginia for felony breaking and entering a place of worship, and they were arrested.

When detectives in Rowan County got word of their arrests, they realized they had been working multiple break-ins at local churches that sounded similar. Detectives looked at a case from May when the Cornerstone Church in Salisbury was broken into “twice in a matter of days.” During those break-ins, a Nord keyboard was stolen. Detectives were able to link Charter to the break-ins and thefts of musical equipment, according to the sheriff’s office.

Channel 9 reported when those break-ins happened.

According to RCSO, deputies found two keyboards during the traffic stop that are “believed to have been stolen from churches in the Daytona, Florida area, possibly over the weekend of August 4.”

The sheriff’s office says after the detectives linked Charter to the Rowan County church thefts, they got contacted by “numerous counties throughout North Carolina and other states including South Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia” for similar break-ins.

Charter is now facing charges out of Rowan County, Randolph County, Gaston County, Brunswick County, and Virginia.

He’s being charged with the following: