Local businessman arrested for assault
Owner of Bargain Center in jail facing Measure 11 charges
By Marguerite Alexander
Correspondent, The Sun
Five months after John Zar Nance was sentenced in Tillamook County for drug and theft charges, the local businessman is back in jail—this time facing more serious charges including two Measure 11 offenses.
Nance, 53, was arrested on July 29 after McMinnville police officers served a search warrant at his rural Amity home. The search turned up evidence linking Nance to a Wednesday assault that left a McMinnville man, Daniel Millar, hospitalized with serious injuries.
The Amity man was transported to the Yamhill County Jail where he is being held on $270,000 bail. He faces three felony charges in connection to last week’s assault and two from an unrelated case.
Nance was arraigned in Yamhill County Circuit Court on Thursday. He was charged with one count each of second-degree assault and first-degree robbery—both Measure 11 offenses—and first-degree burglary, a Class A felony. Judge John Collins set bail at $250,000 on the three charges.
The list of charges, however, did not end there. Nance also faces two first-degree theft charges, both Class C felonies. He was arrested on July 13 and booked into the Yamhill County Jail on $5,000 bail. He was released after posting 10 percent of the bail. Collins increased the bail on the theft charge to $20,000 bringing Nance’s total bail to $270,000.
A second man has also been arrested in connection to the July 28 assault. Charles Lord Chaffee IV, 26, of McMinnville was taken into custody for his participation in the assault after the newly formed Tactical Support Team from the McMinnville Police Department served a search warrant at his McMinnville apartment. He is being held in the Yamhill County Jail on $505,000 bail, $5,000 of which is the result of an unrelated third-degree criminal mischief charge.
According to information provided by the McMinnville Police Department, Millar, 35, was discovered severely injured at his residence on Southeast Ford Street at approximately 3:40 p.m. after police conducted a welfare check. Evidence at the scene indicated that someone had forced entry and assaulted Millar, the lone occupant. The assault appeared to be drug related.
When Nance, who recently opened Highway 18 Bargain Center east of Sheridan, was taken into custody last week, he was on probation for convictions in Tillamook County. Earlier this year the former resident of Netarts pleaded No Contest to charges of unlawful possession of methamphetamine, first-degree theft and frequenting a place where a controlled substance is used.
According to a press release from the Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office dated March 30, Nance and another man, Aaron Dayne Kuehn, 32, of Yamhill County were sentenced in connection to a burglary and drug ring. Nance was sentenced on March 29 to three years probation on each of the three charges. He was to be supervised in Yamhill County.
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