Several prison sentences handed down during Baxter County Circuit Court



    A number of prison sentences were handed down during a lengthy session of Baxter County Circuit Court last week.

    Robert Martinell of Mountain Home was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with eight to serve and two suspended after pleading guilty to a number of charges, including possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia and theft of property.

    Martinell has had several run-in with the law. In the latest charges against him, Martinell was accused of being one of three men who participated in a break-in at Summit Rentals in Mountain Home in early May in which items valued at about $10,000 were stolen. The break-in was planned when Martinell and two other men attended a party together. The other two men also face charges in connection with the break-in.

    Surveillance cameras at the business captured images the three men involved in the incident.

    In addition to Martinell, the other men involved were 21-year-old Brian Calvert and 21-year-old Derrick Vostatek.

    The state dropped a charge of commercial burglary originally filed against the 32-year-old Martinell based on his level of involvement in the Summit Rental break-in. According to court records, Martinell admitted to participating in the planning of the crime and to driving the two codefendants to the business, but said he remained outside while Calvert and Vostatek allegedly went inside the building and removed items.

    All of the stolen property was first taken to Calvert’s residence, but some of the items were moved to another location and possibly traded for drugs, according to investigative records.

    Calvert is currently an inmate in the Tucker Unit of the state prison system on an earlier conviction.

    Christopher Croteau of Mountain Home was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to drug-related charges as well as to fleeing from law officers in a vehicle after they tried to stop him.

    Shane Thomas of Mountain Home was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing a 2005 Ford Tarus from a parking lot and traveling to Raleigh, North Carolina in the vehicle.

    In addition, Thomas was ordered to pay slightly more than $2,200 in restitution.

    While not part of the crime for which he pled guilty, the 19-year-old Thomas was involved in a rather bizarre incident in June in which he was reported to have jumped from a moving vehicle in which he was a passenger on State Highway 5 South in the Briarcliff area.

    Thomas was airlifted to a Springfield hospital in critical condition.

    Prior to jumping from the vehicle, Thomas had allegedly been involved in a disturbance at a residence on Scenic Drive in Salesville. His girlfriend reported to law officers that he had allegedly ingested a fairly substantial quantity of methamphetamine prior to jumping from the vehicle.

    Lenard Lee Rogers, who is currently an inmate in one of the Community Correction Centers in the state, pled guilty to charges against him in this county. He was given one year in a Community Correction Center to run concurrently with time he is now serving on a sentence from Washington County in Northwest Arkansas. The time in the center will be followed by five years probation.

    Rogers admitted that he had used a car belonging to a person identified as his girlfriend without her permission, and had also taken an ATV from a residence. Rogers told law officers that he had taken the 1989 Honda Accord belonging to his girlfriend and had wrecked it. He said he had taken the ATV from a home near the site of the accident to see if he could get the vehicle back on the road. He did not have the owner’s permission to take the ATV. Instead of freeing the car, Rogers managed to get the ATV wedged between the automobile and a free. He abandoned both.    

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