Mount Pleasant man bound over on Warriner Hall thefts

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The 52-year-old Mount Pleasant man charged with the Warriner Hall burglaries will appear in circuit court Sept. 4 on six felony charges.

Nine witnesses testified Tuesday in Isabella County Trial Court at a preliminary hearing for Donald Morrison, including the homeowner of his residence and the custodian who told police she saw him twice in Warriner Hall.

The homeowner testified she was considering dismissing Morrison from her house. She also said he would sometimes be gone from the house for long periods of time.

“He would go for walks a lot,” the homeowner said. “He would come back with a lot of money sometimes.”

Morrison has been charged with one count of conducting criminal enterprise, two counts of breaking and entering and three felony counts of larceny in a building.
He was arrested in July and charged in July for the crimes, which police say began May 7.

Officers from the Mount Pleasant Police Department questioned the homeowner after his arrest and found cash, foreign coins, keys and a stack of stamps in the house. The keys were turned over to the Central Michigan University Police Department after it was determined they may belong to CMU.

John Dillon, a CMU Facilities Management architectural trade supervisor, confirmed the keys were for Warriner Hall when they were presented to the courtroom as evidence.

Other employees in Warriner Hall appeared in court and confirmed certain keys that had gone missing belonged to them. Linda Reid, executive secretary for the Office of Institutional Diversity, told the court some of the stolen stamps belonged to her, in addition to multiple keys.

Mary Bellinger, a custodian, said she encountered Morrison twice in Warriner Hall in late spring. She said she went into one of the offices for routine cleaning and was startled to see Morrison there. She did not see him rummaging through any drawers, however.

“I went in to clean the room and there was this guy in the room,” Bellinger said. “He stood there and looked at me.”

Two police officers from the MPPD and CMU were called to the stand, as was a sergeant from the CMU department and CMU Det. Sgt. Mike Morrow, the chief investigator of the burglaries.

Morrow said Morrison denied entering any CMU buildings. Morrison also told Morrow he has not even been on campus since he went to a concert as a teenager.