A man accused of breaking into a Knox residence on April 28, 2010 was found not guilty of two charges against him following his jury trial on Wednesday.
James Watts was accused of breaking into a home at 4168 South CR 210 in Knox and stealing multiple tools and gas. He was charged with Burglary as a Class C felony and Theft as a Class D felony after a cigarette found in the residence matched his DNA. The owner of the home, Orlean Janasz, told police that she didn’t know him and nor did her family.
Thursday was a busy day for the Starke Circuit Court, where several initial hearings were heard.
Daily James Potter received his initial hearing in the court and received a number of important dates, including his attorney status hearing on June 6 at 9 a.m. His first pre-trial conference will take place July 18 at 8 a.m., with his second pre-trial conference and plea agreement deadline on August 16 at 8 a.m. Potter is charged with Aggravated Battery as a Class B felony, Robbery as a Class B felony, and Battery as a Class C felony. His bond remains at $75,000, and he was ordered to have no contact with the victim in his case.
After pleading guilty to two counts of Intimidation as a Class C felony, Shelby Thomas received his sentence in the Starke Circuit Court Thursday. Thomas had pleaded guilty to the felonies and admitted to threatening to kill Officers James Upsall and Dave Combs while armed with a 10-inch knife.
Thomas was sentenced to seven and a half years for each charge to be served consecutively, giving him a sentence of 15 years in the Department of Corrections. The court recommended to the DOC that he be entered into the CLIFF program. None of his sentence was suspended.
A Starke County jury took just one hour to decide verdicts in the case of James Ritenour III.
The one-day trial occurred Wednesday in Starke Circuit Court and a 12 member jury found James Ritenour III not guilty on charges of Battery with a Deadly Weapon, a Class C Felony, and Criminal Recklessness, a Class D Felony. He was found guilty on two counts of Intimidation, as Class D Felonies, and one count of Interference with Reporting a Crime, a Class A Misdemeanor.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the sentence that was handed to John Brooke in Starke Circuit Court by Judge Kim Hall. Brooke had appealed the sentence challenging his conspiracy conviction and his sentence.
Brooke was sentenced to 22 years in the Indiana Department of Corrections after a jury found him guilty on charges of Conspiracy to Commit Armed Robbery, Intimidation, Possession/Manufacturing of a Destructive Device (a Molotov Cocktail), Possession of a Destructive Device, Resisting Law Enforcement, Unlawful Use of Body Armor and Assisting a Criminal. The charges stemmed from an incident at Bass Lake on February 15th, 2010, where Brooke was convicted of harboring a fugitive, Michael Drogosz, and they developed a plan to kill police officers and rob banks in Starke County. Several other people were also involved in the plan.
James Ritenour III is scheduled to go to trial for charges stemming from an incident in which he allegedly attacked his mother. Ritenour was being held in the Starke County Jail under $100,000 bond after his mother told police that he put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her after she questioned him regarding a malfunctioning microwave.
Jayne Ritenour told police that she was thrown to the floor and stomped on, but she stayed in the home because she was too scared to attempt to leave, thinking her son would attack her again. In the morning, she snuck out of the home and went to Kerby’s Corner Gas Station where she was able to contact police.
Jonathan and Nathan Hummel pleaded guilty yesterday in Starke Circuit Court to several charges against them. The pair were involved in an armed robbery incident at the Knox CVS pharmacy on December 20th.
Accused of firing a gun in the Wythogan Park in Knox, Dustin Spencer was present for his initial hearing in Starke Circuit Court on Wednesday. Spencer pleaded not guilty to the charges against him: Criminal Recklessness as both Class C and Class D felonies.
Spencer requested a court-appointed attorney and was granted Attorney Timothy Lemon. These charges stem from an incident on April 10th in which police say Spencer fired a gun in the park with several bystanders, including juveniles playing on a baseball diamond, and he also allegedly fired the gun toward an occupied dwelling.
The initial hearing for Robert Ryan Corbin was held in Starke Circuit Court Tuesday. Corbin is charged with two counts of Attempted Child Seduction after he allegedly sent inappropriate Facebook messages and that he wanted to pick her up. He also requested pictures of the student and asked her explicit questions.
A preliminary plea of not guilty was entered for Corbin, who has retained Attorney Nicholas T. Otis of Newby Lewis Kaminski and Jones in LaPorte. His attorney announced his intent to file a motion to dismiss the charges and the state has 30 days to respond to the motion. The first pre-trial conference date for Corbin has been set for June 6th at 8:30 a.m., with a hearing on the motion to dismiss to take place at 9:00 a.m. Continue reading →
John Goble, Sr., former Street Superintendent for the Town of Hamlet, was recently arrested on a warrant for theft.
Police say that in January, Goble and his son, John Goble, Jr., resigned their positions with the street department after a disagreement with the Hamlet Town Board and the Board appointed Town Marshal Frank Lonigro III as the temporary Street Superintendent until a full-time replacement was found.
Lonigro was told by the Town Board members to conduct an inventory of all town equipment with the Street Department. Lonigro could not find a current equipment inventory list so he contacted Smith Farm Store, where most of the town’s equipment is purchased, to get a list of receipts for 2011. Lonigro reportedly found that equipment purchased and was signed for by John Goble, Sr. was unaccounted for in an inventory check. Alleged items that have not been accounted for totals $1,358.65.
Clayton Reiss was sentenced in Starke Circuit Court this week.
Reiss pleaded guilty in a plea agreement to charges of Dealing in Schedule I, II, or III Controlled Substance as a Class B Felony and Dealing in Schedule IV Controlled Substance as a Class C Felony in one cause heard before Judge Kim Hall. He pleaded guilty in a plea agreement in a separate cause to Theft as a Class D Felony.
Judge Hall sentenced Reiss to six years each on both Dealing in Controlled Substance charges. Those sentences will run concurrently and shall run consecutively to a sentence of 12 months on the Theft charge. No part of the sentences were suspended. Reiss will serve those sentences in the Indiana Department of Corrections.
Traci Jacobs received her sentence in the Starke Circuit Court yesterday. Jacobs pleaded guilty to Operating an Illegal Drug Lab as a Class D felony, and was sentenced to 12 months in the Department of Corrections with none of that sentence suspended. In a separate case, Jacobs pleaded guilty to Dealing in Methamphetamine as a Class B felony and received a ten-year sentence in the Department of Corrections, with two of those years suspended. Two years of her executed sentence will be allowed to be served on home detention.
Those sentences will run consecutively. Upon her sentencing, one cause was dismissed in which she was charged with Theft as a Class D felony, and Trespassing as a Class A misdemeanor, and another case in Knox City Court was dismissed as well.
Jacobs was arrested on active arrest warrants and on preliminary charges of Manufacturing Methamphetamine with Intent to Deal, Possession of Precursors, Illegal Drug Lab, Possession of Methamphetamine, and Possession of Paraphernalia on Thursday, November 17th.
A Monterey man has been charged in a Monday battery incident.
David Zachary, 40, allegedly battered his girlfriend. The victim told police about the incident the day after the event. She explained that she was not allowed to leave the house or make any phone calls so she couldn’t report the incident right away. She was allowed to go to work the next day and after she picked up her children from school and day care, she went to the Starke County Sheriff’s Department to report the incident. The victim stated that Zachary reportedly became mad at her the day before and struck her. The victim’s children told police that Zachary allegedly said that if their mother called the police, he would kill her.
Dylan Woolley was sentenced in Starke Circuit Court on Wednesday morning.
He had pleaded guilty in a plea agreement to charges of Burglary as a Class C Felony and Theft as a Class D Felony. He was arrested in August of last year after he told police that he broke into a garage. He told police that he didn’t find anything in the garage that he wanted so he went to another location and took two tents and a cordless drill from a shed. The items were returned to the owner.
Woolley was sentenced to three years in the Indiana Department of Corrections on the burglary charge and 18 months on the theft charge. The sentences were suspended and he will serve three years on probation.
Stacie Brown, 35, of Knox, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for causing the death of her stepson, three-year-old Ethan Brown on June 9th, 2011.
Knox Police Department Detective David Combs was on the witness stand almost two hours describing the case in detail. Brown had been charged with one felony count of battery resulting in death. Another count of Neglect of a Dependent was dropped in a plea bargain arrangement.
A sentencing hearing for Stacie Brown is scheduled in Starke Circuit Court tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.
Stacie Brown pleaded guilty in a plea agreement in January to Battery Causing Death, a Class A Felony. Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall will hear testimony in the case and will determine whether he will accept or reject the plea agreement. If the agreement is accepted, she could be sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison.
Shelby Thomas pleaded guilty to two counts of Intimidation as Class C felonies in the Starke Circuit Court Thursday. Thomas, 57, admitted to threatening to kill Officers James Upsall and Dave Combs while armed with a 10-inch knife.
The possible penalties for these charges are two to eight years in the Department of Corrections on each count, and Prosecutor Nick Bourff is hoping for a 16-year sentence for Thomas. No plea agreement has been filed, but Bourff has indicated he will dismiss the remaining charges against Thomas, including four counts of Attempted Murder, if victims in the case feel 16 years is a sufficient penalty.
Alex Bradley was found guilty in a jury trial on a charge of Receiving Stolen Property in Starke Circuit Court this week.
He was found guilty of being in possession of a stolen golf cart. Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall revoked his bond and he was taken back to the Starke County Jail. He will stay in the jail until his sentencing hearing on February 29th at 11:00 a.m.
Facing eleven charges, four of which are Class A felonies, Shelby Thomas appeared in the Starke Circuit Court for a plea hearing. Defense Attorney Richard Ballard and Prosecutor Nick Bourff previously told the court that they plan to resolve the matter without the need of a jury trial, which was set for February 8th.
Former Starke County resident, 31-year-old Jerrold L. Minix, was arrested on two active arrest warrants earlier this month in LaPorte County. One warrant was for incidents that occurred in Starke County in 2007.
Minix appeared in Starke Circuit Court last week and pleaded not guilty to charges of Burglary, two counts, two counts of Theft and two counts of Receiving Stolen Property. He is suspected of entering Carpenter’s Oil in North Judson on December 4th, 2007 and stealing tobacco products and convenience items from the store. He also reportedly broke into the Sporty’z Bar at Bass Lake and stole a computer. He also allegedly stole tools from the utility garage owned by the Town of North Judson and a black duffel bag from the North Judson Little League Concession Stand.
