The Montgomery County Multi-Jurisdictional SWAT team arrested a Crawfordsville man Tuesday who was wanted for dealing methamphetamine and for not showing up for a jury trial in another case.
Yancey Shane Crews, 44, was taken into custody at approximately 5 p.m. Tuesday after an arrest warrant was executed by SWAT team members at a home at 9985 S. C.R. 750W, Waveland. Police say they found Crews hiding inside the residence.
The SWAT team, which is compromised of deputies from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, officers from the Crawfordsville Police Department and medics from the Crawfordsville Fire Department, is used on high-risk warrants. A recent investigation involving Crews revealed information that prompted the SWAT team’s assistance in executing the warrant.
Crews had been on the Montgomery County Most Wanted list for approximately three months. He failed to appear in court for a jury trial June 11 for a case from 2017. Crews is facing Level 6 felony charges of maintaining a common nuisance, possession of a narcotic drug and methamphetamine along with a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana.
Prosecutors filed charges against Crews in January for battery resulting in bodily injury. He’s accused of head butting and slapping a woman, causing lacerations to her mouth and lip and jaw and head pain. And in June, Crews was charged with six counts of dealing in methamphetamine, including three Level 5 felony counts, two Level 4 felonies and one Level 3 felony.
“I am very proud of the efforts and professionalism of all the (SWAT) team members,” Montgomery County Sheriff Ryan Needham said. “The team is highly trained and made up of professional members who routinely go into harms way to resolve dangerous situations.”
Needham said that detectives from the Crawfordsville Police Department and Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office are continuing work on the case and additional charges could be added.
Crews is a known habitual offender. An affidavit filed in Montgomery Circuit Court in September 2017 notes that Crews had accumulated multiple felony convictions prior to his current pending charges.
He was sentenced to three years in prison in 1993 for failing to stop after a crash resulting in death. Crews was given 12 years in prison in 1995 for conspiracy to commit armed robbery and aiding in armed robbery. He received a suspended sentence for six years in a community corrections program, but violated corrections and probation terms on numerous occasions between 2000 and 2003.
Crews was convicted on felony charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated in 2009 and again in 2012, and sentenced to three years in jail in each case. He was convicted on felony charges of intimidation in 2015, invasion of privacy in 2016 and maintaining a common nuisance in 2017.
