Warrants: Former Granville sheriff had vehicles confiscated from crime scenes on his property

Former Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins is serving 18 months in prison, but his legal problems keep building.

On Wednesday, WRAL News obtained search warrants that show agents with the State Bureau of Investigation searched his farm and found various vehicles and equipment confiscated from Granville County crime scenes there. Some of the equipment dates to crimes committed years ago.

In December, a jury found Wilkins guilty of falsifying training records. He was charged with doctoring records about his in-service training and firearms training from 2012 to 2018 to maintain state certification for himself and his staff.

During that trial, prosecutors questioned Wilkins about taking evidence including more than $200,000 and various vehicles from a 2011 crime scene to his home. Based on that testimony, the SBI got a search warrant and went to his Oxford property on Tuesday.

They found a white Chevy van, a John Deere mower, a military surplus truck and various trailers that match evidence taken from that crime scene. The warrants don't mention whether any money was found.

Wilkins told the court the evidence was taken to his farm for temporary storage.

Based on the most recent raid, attorneys tell WRAL News that Wilkins could face embezzlement charges.

Wilkins, who was suspended as sheriff in 2019, has been the subject of multiple ongoing investigations of his office.

In September 2019, Wilkins was accused of urging someone in 2014 to kill a deputy he thought was about to expose his alleged use of racially offensive language.

Shortly after that indictment, state and federal investigators began looking into the operations of the Granville County drug unit. FBI and State Bureau of Investigation agents are tracking money seized and used by investigators in drug cases.

WRAL Investigates found drug investigators in the Granville County Sheriff’s Office didn’t keep track of how much money was paid to informants and that members may have illegally coerced people into becoming informants.

District Attorney Mike Waters told SBI investigators that his office had to dismiss more than 100 criminal cases in 2017 because the drug unit didn’t document any of its interactions with a frequent informant, including any agreements with him, how much he was paid or who was to be targeted in undercover drugs buys.