Photo: Gavin Stutts
Gavin Stutts of Mountain Home, accused of breaking into a store and shooting into a house on two occasions last year, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with five suspended and five to serve, during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
The 28-year-old Stutts entered a no contest plea to the charges against him Oct. 17. His sentencing was held over until Thursday.
When asked if he had anything to say before Circuit Judge Gordon Webb pronounced sentence, Gavin said in a quiet, hesitant voice he had completed the John 3:16 rehab program to help him with his addiction. He told Webb, “The charges against me don’t reflect who I am as a person.” The judge said he appreciated Stutts’ efforts to tame his addiction, but said, “There must be consequences for this type behavior.”
Stutts was arrested for breaking into a grocery store along State Highway 101 North in July last year. The owner of the business lives next door and she told investigators she heard her dogs barking in the early morning hours. She was reported to have seen a man walking around in the store and called 911. Stutts fled before deputies arrived. Video footage from the store’s surveillance system showed he made entry to the business by throwing a rock through the glass front door. Law enforcement was also able to determine from the video the type of vehicle Stutts was driving.
He took beer and cigarettes.
Police were alerted to be on the lookout for the vehicle he was driving when the break-in took place. It was located in the parking lot of the Mountain Home Walmart. Stutts was located, came to the vehicle and gave officers permission to search. Police reported finding 9 millimeter casings and unspent ammunition of the same type.
Stutts was also charged with firing bullets into a residence along Bryant Street on two occasions — May 3 and July 20 last year. At first the motive behind the act was unknown. Stutts initially told investigators he did not know anyone living in the house and had no reason to hurt any of the residents.
The bullets were reported to have struck the front door, living room windows and interior walls.
In the second incident of shots being fired at the same house, officers found two new bullet holes — one through a wall and one through a bedroom window. A total of seven shots were fired at the house — five in the first incident and two in the second.
No one was reported to have been injured.
A male resident of the Bryant Street residence eventually told officers he had a previous relationship with Stutts’ wife a few years prior to the shooting incidents. He said Stutts and his wife were separated at the time, and he had had no contact with the woman since.
Stutts was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and committing terroristic acts stemming from the shooting incidents. In the store break-in, he was charged with commercial burglary and theft of property.
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