BCSO foils News Year's burglary

By Glynis Crawford Smith
The Highlander

A burglary in progress was foiled by Burnet County Sheriff's Office (BCSO) deputies, resulting in the arrests of two suspects who had come armed into a rural home near the Briggs Community on New Year's Day.
They are being praised for defusing a confrontation with an armed suspect.
Taken into custody, and still in the Burnet County Jail on Thursday, Jan. 5, were Kirk Daniel Hullum, 32, of Bertram and Sterling James Teall, 26, of Austin, both charged with the first degree felony of burglary of a habitation, intending other felony.
Residents at 145 Burnet County Road 210-A returned New Year's afternoon to find the glass of a back door entry broken and a cammo color AR-15-style rifle lying just inside the door. The homeowner, James Stephens, did not investigate further, but called 9-1-1 immediately at 2:27 p.m..
When BCSO Deputy Howard Stinehour responded, he saw the rifle and a blood trail smeared along the walls and floor of the home.
“Cabinets were opened (and) dishes were broken on the floor,” said Stinehour, who reported hearing noises from a locked bedroom door and finding a second door to the room barricaded.
He and Sgt. Steve Koenning waited for backup, which eventually included Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and Bertram police, before being accompanied by Deputy Jimmy Martin to cover exits from the bedroom. It was Stinehour who found himself faced with an armed man.
“One defendant, later identified as Kirk Hullum, opened a west side bedroom window and pulled a 9mm pistol from a holster on his right side,” Stinehour reported. “I … ordered him to drop the pistol (and) the defendants were ordered to come to the bedroom door one at a time.”
When Hullum emerged, his pistol holster was empty and the gun was recovered from just below the window.
A cut on Teall's wrist, apparently from breaking glass to enter the home, was the only source found for extensive blood smears throughout the home. He was treated at Seton Highland Lakes Hospital before being booked into jail.
Stinehour said damage inside the residence was extensive, with dressers overturned and sheet rock ripped from a wall.
Hullum's record shows other Burnet County arrests, including another for burglary in 2011. Each man is being held on $100,000 bond.
“The officers did an outstanding job dealing with the situation at hand,” said BCSO Patrol Cpt. Ricky Bindseil. “No one was hurt or injured in the course of the arrest.”