The past can follow you
Gabe Recinos didn’t want to accept what Judge Verkamp was saying.
It seemed that Judge Nathan Verkamp realized this.
“The last time I saw Verkamp, he told me he never wanted to see me in his court again,” Gabe had said before going into the Dubois County Circuit Court.
“I am really nervous, man.”
The judge had just read off the charge on the warrant for Gabe’s arrest, alleging that he had knowingly used another person’s debit/credit card to make purchases at Dollar General in Celestine.
Gabe has said he was wrongly identified in the warrant for his arrest from the Jasper Police Department. A warrant he found out about Saturday evening after several officers followed him and his family from Arby’s into Ruler Grocery’s parking lot. There, Gabe claims the officers blocked his car in before telling him they were arresting him.
“And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I was freaking out, dude, and like, my wife and my kids and everything, they were all freaking out because, like, I haven’t been in trouble in over two years,” Gabe explained.
Longer than that if you consider he had been serving a sentence from 2021 until his release in May of 2023–though there were hiccups during that time. But he’s on track now. He is the department manager at the McDonald’s in Ferdinand. He says police know that’s where he is and could have come there anytime to talk to him.
Saturday afternoon, they took him to the Jasper Police Department, where Gabe spent hours claiming they had the wrong guy. He was on the video, but he insisted he was using his own card to make the purchase.
“They went back and looked, and I was using my Fifth Third bank card,” he asserted.
He was booked into the Dubois County Security Center at 8:51 p.m. At 11:14 pm., he was released without bond on his own recognizance.
He made his first appearance on Tuesday at 11 a.m.
Judge Verkamp took a moment to explain what Gabe was facing. “At this point, this is just an initial hearing,” he told Gabe. “The only thing I’m doing is advising you of the charge and the possible penalty.”
This was the Class A misdemeanor fraud count for allegedly possessing a stolen card used to make a purchase at Dollar General.
You are presumed innocent,” Verkamp accented. “It’s just an allegation at this point. I just need to know you understand the charge. I’m not asking you to agree to anything.”
“I understand the charge,” Gabe said.
Judge Verkamp then explained the second count of Class A misdemeanor theft. This was for allegedly using the card to make a purchase at Dollar General.
Gabe repeated that he understood the charge.
Verkamp then explained his rights and gave him an option to retain his own counsel or rely on an appointed attorney. Gabe chose to retain his own counsel.
Verkamp said he was entering a not-guilty plea on Gabe’s behalf (since Gabe didn’t have counsel, this is automatic), then set a follow-up court date for May 13. He then excused Gabe from the court, again on his own recognizance, with a warning not to participate in any criminal activity.
Leaving the courtroom, Gabe seemed angry and confused about the proceedings. He had thought the charges would be dropped because of how everything had occurred Saturday evening, but this was simply the initial hearing. A stop in the judicial process to inform the accused individual of the allegations they face, while offering them access to an attorney to represent them through the following steps.
Gabe has been contacting attorneys to represent him.
The Jasper Police Department opened an investigation into the incident on March 16, 2025, when the credit card owner reported that it had been used for several purchases. Those purchases included ones at the Birdseye Sunoco gas station, a Dollar General, and the On-The-Fly in Dubois.
The police report states that the card owner was unable to tell police when the card was used at those locations during the initial report of the crime. Then, a few days later, on March 24, the victim returned and provided more transaction records. Officers then used those transaction times to attempt to find video of the person using the card.
According to the police, the Sunoco transactions didn’t lead them anywhere. The Sunoco manager was unable to locate the transactions, and the station does not have any cameras, according to the report.
On-The-Fly in Dubois does have cameras, and police were able to view the transactions occurring using the stolen card at one of the pumps and in the store. Using vehicle records, they identified the female individual using the card. Subsequently, she was arrested on Sunday, April 13, and released on bond.
Police were also able to obtain video of a male making purchases and walking around the Celestine Dollar General store during the time the victim stated her card was being used there.
The officer took the recording and showed it to a detective at the Dubois County Sheriff’s Office, who identified Gabe as the person in the video. The detective said he recognized Gabe from previous interactions.
The officer then located Gabe’s driver’s license record and was able to match his picture with the individual in the video at Dollar General.
Gabe doesn’t deny that he was the one in the video. He says he used his card for the purchases–one described as blue in the police report. The stolen card was also blue.
However, after being taken to the holding cell at the police station, Gabe continued to deny his involvement. He was booked into the Dubois County Security Center, but the officer contacted Gabe’s significant other to bring his phone in to check its records on the purchases he made.
Back at the jail, the officer allowed Gabe to show him some bank records on his phone that changed the officer’s mind about Gabe’s involvement.
Regarding the investigation and arrest, Jasper Police Chief Chad Dick kept his remarks concise.
“He had an active warrant, which is what he was arrested for, and then, upon interviewing him, it was determined that he may not have been the person,” Chief Dick stated. “So a phone call was made to the prosecutor’s office, and the prosecutor made a phone call to the judge, and the judge decided to release him with the court date.”
According to Dubois County Prosecuting Attorney Beth Schroeder, it appeared that Gabe was able to provide the arresting officer with some information that changed the outcome of the arrest.
“Whatever Mr. Recino said to him led him to have some concerns that Mr. Recino was the incorrect suspect. And so at that point in time, he contacted the deputy prosecutor, who was Dan Wilkinson,” Schroeder explained. “Dan contacted Judge Verkamp and requested that he be released, just out of an abundance of caution to make sure in case he was not the correct person.”
She noted that if Gabe had committed the crimes, they could refile charges.
“I will say this is strange. I’ve never had that happen before, but because the officer expressed concerns, Dan made sure that Mr. Recino was released,” Schroeder added.
Though Gabe has a court date, Schroeder expected the case to be dismissed before then.
According to Gabe, his three-year-old son, Brayson, who was in the car during the arrest, now worries that his dad won’t return home anytime he leaves.
Would he have been so easily identified in the investigation if he didn’t have a past?
The 24-year-old recognizes that he has a history, and police know him–his first interaction was at nine years old when he set a dumpster on fire. He’s staying on the straight and narrow right now. He has goals. Gabe wants to be there for his family.
The past that continues to follow him is why he moved to Celestine. It’s why he wants to move to Florida, where he has extended family and better prospects for the future.
“I’m just trying to do better for my family, and like, I’ve been trying to save up, you know, I’ve been trying to move out of state to Florida, and it just seems like I just keep getting set back by something stupid,” Gabe said. “It just follows you. You know? People just look at your past instead of looking at the future and what you’re doing to better yourself.”
This afternoon, Dubois County Prosecuting Attorney Beth Schroeder confirmed they had filed for dismissal of the charges, and Judge Verkamp had granted the dismissal.
