Jonesboro, AR – JonesboroRightNow.com – According to court documents, DNA evidence from blood left at a 2023 crime scene led to felony charges against a West Memphis man accused of stealing over $62,000 in air conditioning equipment from a Jonesboro construction site.
On Sept. 6, 2023, Jonesboro police officers were dispatched to a car lot construction site in the 3300 block of Stadium Boulevard. The victim reported multiple pieces of air conditioning equipment stolen, including seven York AC compressors, eight Fraser-Johnson AC coils, and seven Fraser-Johnson furnace units. The total value of the stolen items was $62,324.
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According to the probable cause affidavit, officers found blood droplets where the equipment had been disconnected and removed. The Criminal Investigation Division was called to the scene, and blood swabs were collected and submitted to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for analysis.
Results received on Feb. 18, 2026, indicated a positive DNA match to 37-year-old Emmanual Dytrel Steele. A detective obtained a phone number for Steele through his probation officer. Despite speaking with Steele multiple times and scheduling several interview appointments, he failed to appear each time.
On March 30, following a meeting between the detective and Steele’s family members, Steele arrived at the Jonesboro Police Department. He agreed to an interview without an attorney present and claimed he had been working in Texas at the time of the incident, adding that he had never performed any work in Jonesboro. However, when informed that his DNA was found at the scene, Steele invoked his right to an attorney, and the interview concluded.
Steele appeared before District Judge David Boling on April 1. Boling found probable cause to charge Steele with commercial burglary, a Class C felony, and with theft of property valued at more than $25,000, a Class B felony. He was issued a $300,000 cash or surety bond and ordered to wear a GPS ankle monitor upon release.
Steele is scheduled to appear in court next on May 18. If convicted on all charges, he faces up to 30 years in prison and fines totaling $25,000.
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