Two weeks after 15 students filed reports of theft and trespassing in Doty and Turck Halls, Macalester Public Safety and the Saint Paul Police Department (SPPD) arrested Marcus Cortez Funches, 18, outside of the Leonard Center (LC) this weekend.

The security and law enforcement officers used video evidence to connect Funches to the Doty and Turck theft spree.

The arrest came after a staff member alerted Public Safety when they heard Funches tell another student in the LC that he did not go to Macalester. The staff member recognized Funches from when he was in the LC on the evening on Saturday, Feb. 16.

After detaining him, Public Safety reviewed the video from Doty and Turck and confirmed Funches as the culprit.

“Yes, he was responsible,” Kurtz wrote in an email to The Mac Weekly. “The video evidence was critical.”

Two criminal complaints have been filed with the Ramsey County District Court charging him with first- and second-degree burglary for the stolen belongings from Turck and Doty.

Most of the items stolen on Feb. 16 were wallets, AirPods, cash and headphones. One student reported their car was stolen; SPPD eventually recovered the car and could not link it to Funches.

Funches is also accused, in a third criminal complaint, of taking a wallet from a woman’s bag while the woman was working at the Anderson Student Center at the University of St. Thomas on Feb. 11.

Funches also pleaded guilty to two motor vehicle thefts last month. He was also charged in February with robbing a woman at gunpoint in the Summit-University neighborhood.

The Mac Weekly will continue to report on this story as it develops.

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