Man accused of breaking into, trashing Boonville apartment arrested

BOONVILLE, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Boonville man who was accused of breaking into an apartment on Jan. 28 and destroying every item in the residence has been arrested.

James Alcobas, 31, was charged on March 18 with second-degree burglary and first-degree property damage. He was also charged the same day with tampering with a witness. He was booked into the Cooper County Jail on Wednesday and is being held on a $1,500 bond.

According to one of the probable cause statements, Boonville police were called to a burglary at an apartment in the 700 block of Sixth Street at 2:45 a.m. Jan. 28. The victim allegedly told police that he was at work, went home and saw someone broke into his apartment and destroyed all of his property. The front door was forced open and the “entire apartment’s contents were destroyed,” the statement says.

The probable cause statement says about $1,500 worth of items were destroyed.

At 3:34 p.m., the victim sent police screenshots of messages allegedly showing that Alcobas went to the residence and destroyed every item, the probable cause statement says. At 6 p.m., the victim arrived at the Boonville Police Department and stated Alcobas had left his phone at the apartment, the statement says.

According to another probable cause statement, the victim had received a text message from Alcobas from a VoIP text now number, that uses the internet. According to the statement, Alcobas allegedly wrote “I did all this they still aren’t going to arrest me because they don’t have evidence” and threatened to break into the victim’s apartment again.