Hopkins Woman, Two Others Arrested for Stealing from W. St. Paul Store

A Hopkins woman and two Minneapolis women Minneapolis are facing felony charges after police arrested them in the parking lot of a West St. Paul store with a car trunkload of stolen merchandise.

Jessica Lee Matrious Bennett, 32, of Hopkins, and Jayme Anne Wilson, 22, and Jamie Lynn Skinaway, 41, both of Minneapolis, are charged with felony theft. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

All three women were arrested May 12 and are free on bond.

Police were called to the store just before 3 p.m. that same day when store security alerted them to a shoplifting in progress, according to the criminal complaints.

Store security personnel were watching Bennett, Wilson and Skinaway because they were suspected of stealing merchandise from other metro-area locations of the same store, according to the complaints.

The court documents did not name the store.

Police and store security watched the three women via security cameras. Bennett and Skinaway took a shopping cart and separated from Wilson, who also took a shopping cart. All three selected numerous items and placed them in their carts, the complaints say.

Wilson then met Skinaway, and Skinaway put items from her cart into Wilson’s cart, according to the court documents. The merchandise that the three women put into Wilson’s cart was valued at $1,194, according to the complaints.

Wilson then separated from Bennett and Skinaway and went to the front of the store. She left her shopping cart at the checkout lanes, walked away from it and began looking at greeting cards, the complaints charge.

Skinaway went to the self-checkout lanes, where she took a picture frame from her cart and appeared to purchase it, according to the complaints. While she was checking out, Bennett pushed Wilson’s full shopping cart past the checkouts, making no attempt to pay for the merchandise, and left the store with it, the complaints say.

Skinaway abandoned the rest of the merchandise in her cart and left the store with Wilson. All three loaded the stolen merchandise into the trunk of a vehicle in the parking lot, the complaints charge.

Police stopped the vehicle as it was leaving the parking lot and arrested the three women.