A guest at a Royal Street bed and breakfast faces a terrorizing charge related to a May encounter with staff at the New Orleans lodging business. Cody Yankee, 32, of Manitou, Colo., threatened to burn down the B&B, shouted a racial slur at a staffer and was keeping in his room a cooler containing a rifle, ammunition, marijuana and other items, according to his arrest warrant.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office booked Yankee on Tuesday (Nov. 6) on a warrant stemming from the May 4 incident at the Balcony Guest House, 2483 Royal. He had been transported from Colorado to face the charges, booking records show. In addition to the terrorizing charge, he was booked with possession with intent to distribute marijuana and illegal carrying of a weapon with controlled dangerous substances.
At his first court appearance Tuesday, Yankee was represented by private attorney Robert Toale, court records show. Toale could not immediately be reached Saturday.
According to a sworn affidavit from New Orleans police officer Christle Young, the innkeeper reported Yankee to police because he “felt threatened” by the guest. The innkeeper said Yankee used a racist slur against one of his employees and told the employee, “I’m gonna burn this place down!” according the warrant, which cited the innkeeper’s interview with police.
A maintenance worker told police that at some point during Yankee’s stay at Balcony Guest House, he went to Yankee’s room to fix the air conditioning and saw “several drugs and bullets all over the place,” the warrant states. Yankee told the worker to, “Get the f— out!” the warrant states.
A cleaning staffer told police he went into Yankee’s room on May 1 “because water was flooding from his upstairs hotel room” into the B&B’s dining room. When the staffer entered Yankee’s room, he told police, he saw, “the room was trashed” and the guest “had batteries connected together as if he was trying to ‘hook something up.'” The staffer also noticed “containers were all over the place.”
On May 4, the same cleaning employee saw Yankee standing in front of his room with a cooler, the same blue and white cooler that the innkeeper said was later placed in an exterior storage closet. Also that day, a kitchen staffer told police that Yankee told the staff, “You n—–! I don’t want to talk to you.”
The innkeeper showed police the cooler in the exterior closet. According to the warrant, the top of the cooler had “writing and drawings all over it,” including the words:
- Do not open of [sic] you are the police…because f— the police, don’t take my box police.
- This box is not pot. Nor what lies beneath.
- Pig killer.
- If you [sic] name is not me stay me [sic] stay the f— out.
- Crack head inside
- All pigs must burn
Inside the cooler was an AK-9 Luger, a laser scope, a “spit fire 3X scope,” a can of gun cleaner, a can of WD-40, a loaded magazine, an unloaded magazine, more than 60 different kinds of bullets. The ammunition storage could be consided less than ideal because of the three bags of vegetable matter and a toothbrush also stored in the cooler. The vegetable matter tested positive for marijuana, the warrant said. The cooler included three bags of the vegetable matter: one large, full unopened bag; a large opened half-full bag; and one nearly empty large bag.
Magistrate Commissioner Brigid Collins signed the warrant May 4. On Tuesday, Yankee was transported to Orleans Parish from Colorado Springs, where he had been arrested on the warrant, booking records show. Magistrate Commissioner Albert Thibodeaux set his bond at $15,500 and issued a non-domestic stay-away order.
A hearing was scheduled for Nov. 13 on Yankee’s request to leave New Orleans. Jail records indicate he was released on bond sometime before Friday afternoon (Nov. 9).
Credit: nola.com