Boulder City constable arrested on felony charges

The chief constable for Boulder City was arrested Wednesday after police said he broke into his ex-girlfriend's home and took several firearms, which he had given as gifts while they were dating, according to a Boulder City Police Department arrest report.

Larry Markotay, 42, was arrested and charged with several felonies, including burglary with use of a deadly weapon, three counts of grand larceny with use of a firearm and two counts of possession of stolen property. He is being held at Clark County Detention Center without bail.

Police said the missing guns were retrieved from Markotay's vehicle after a Feb. 22 accident, in which the constable was later arrested and charged with driving under the influence and fleeing the scene of an accident.

According to the report, the burglary occurred about 1 a.m. Feb. 14. Markotay's ex-girlfriend, Cathleen Winterrowd, had been eating dinner at a restaurant with others and returned home to find four weapons missing from the home.

She called police and reported she thought Markotay had stolen the firearms. Only the guns Markotay had given her were missing, according to the report, though there were many guns in the home. Jewelry in the same nightstand a gun was stolen from remained untouched, the report said.

A digital camera was also missing. Winterrowd told police Markotay knew she had taken pictures of the guns with the camera, the report said.

According to the report, she told police she had broken up with Markotay in August after having dated him since 2006. Since the breakup, he had become obsessed with her, constantly calling and e-mailing her in attempts to rekindle the romance, the report said she told police.

Police had been called to her home once in September. Markotay was "intoxicated," the report said, as he hit her bedroom window and demanded she speak to him.

Markotay's vehicle was parked in the street nearby. He denied having driven the vehicle that night and was not arrested that evening, the report said. He was given a "courtesy ride" home.

On Feb. 22, Markotay was arrested on a drunken driving charge after crashing his 2003 Ford Crown Victoria into a light pole and fleeing the scene. Traffic investigators found two of the guns reported missing from Markotay's ex-girlfriend's home, the report said.

During interviews with police, Markotay initially told detectives he owned the guns in the vehicle, and he had never broken into the woman's home.

When detectives told Markotay they didn't believe him, he asked whether he could speak off the record. Detectives told him they could not go completely off the record, when Markotay asked, "What am I looking at here?"

Detectives told Markotay he would be facing a burglary charge, the report said. Markotay told police he was afraid to go to jail and "wouldn't make it in there." He told police he had severe back pain and was afraid his medication would be improperly administered, the report said.

Police also interviewed a friend of Markotay who was the passenger in the vehicle the night of Markotay's DUI charge. The friend told police Markotay had pressured him to lie about the guns in his vehicle.