“We believe that he is actually involved in the burglary,” DiPietro said.
Montgomery County sheriff’s Maj. Dave Hale said Powell lives on the street where six guitars — including two that once belonged to Troutman — were stolen from the home of a relative of Troutman’s son, Larry Gates.
Powell was arrested Monday at the Guitar Center, 2700 Miamisburg-Centerville Road, near the Dayton Mall, after he attempted to sell at least one of the guitars.
“(Guitar Center) had some previous information on these guitars that had been stolen in a burglary,” DiPietro said. “They looked familiar. (Guitar Center) called us to go over there and we talked with the guy that was trying to sell them.”
A store official also called Gates, who was relieved to hear the news.
“They were telling me that the perpetrator brought in three guitars over three different days,” Gates said, adding that he had contacted Guitar Center shortly after the Aug. 16 robbery to be on the lookout for the stolen guitars.
He was told that the store ended up selling two of the guitars and at least one of the guitars was on a mailing service truck en route to another Guitar Center store in California. Store officials contacted the mailing service and the two guitars — a Stratocaster and a Peavey — were returned to the local store and eventually confiscated by police.
Gates said he was told that Powell was attempting to sell his father’s Gibson guitar, which had his father’s name on it. A store official became suspicious during a conversation with Powell. According to Gates, Powell tried to convince the employee that he was Troutman.
Authorities eventually were able to retrieve all the guitars, including two — Troutman’s Ibanez and a Guild — that were found in the trunk of a vehicle at another location, according to Gates and the sheriff’s office. A sheriff’s deputy was able to locate the last missing guitar — a Bourgeois — at a residence of one of Powell’s friends.
In addition to the charges that Miami Twp. police sought, the sheriff’s office plans on pursuing breaking and entering charges against Powell, who has a criminal record, Hale said.
Troutman, 47, was shot and killed by his older brother Larry Troutman, 54, in 1999 during a murder-suicide. The Troutman Brothers were part of Dayton’s most famous musical families and pioneers of the famous rock-funk “Dayton Sound” of the 1970s.
The brothers were members of their family band, Zapp. The band’s self-titled debut album hit the pop top 20 in 1980 and scored a major hit with the song, “More Bounce to the Ounce.” Roger Troutman eventually went solo and had a No. 1 hit in 1987 with the song, “I Want to Be Your Man.” He found a new audience not long before his death when he collaborated with hip-hop superstars Tupac Shakur and Dr. Dre for the song, “California Love.”
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