A Mountain Home man with a long history of committing crimes and running from the law entered a guilty plea to charges in three criminal cases during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court last Monday.
Thirty-two-year-old Stephan Richard Whaples was sentenced to spend time in one of the Community Corrections Centers in the state to undergo addiction treatment. He will also be on probation for 10 years.
The open cases containing Whaples’ most recent charges were all filed last year. The charges in the open cases include allegedly stealing all terrain vehicles to sell so he could pay fines levied in earlier cases and possession of drugs.
According to the probable cause affidavit in the ATV theft case, Whaples is alleged to have taken two of the machines a Honda Pioneer side-by-side in February and a Suzuki KingQuad in March last year.
They were both found concealed in the woods and both units were reported to have been “hotwired.”
Video from game cameras in the remote area where the Honda had been hidden pictured a white Chevrolet truck driven by a person identified as Whaples. A female, 29-year-old Ashley Henson of Mountain Home, described as Whaples’ girlfriend, was a passenger in the vehicle.
When Henson was questioned in connection with the ATV thefts, she told investigators she had been with Whaples when he went to the area where the Honda was hidden. She maintained she did not know if Whaples had stolen it or not.
Whaples ran afoul of the law again when an Arkansas State Police Trooper pulled him over for a minor traffic infraction on Mar. 8 last year.
The pickup truck Whaples was driving when the ASP trooper stopped him was alleged to be the same one pictured on the game cameras being driven in the area where one of the allegedly stolen ATV’s was hidden in the woods.
Henson was also with Whaples when the trooper made the stop. Her case is listed as inactive and she has been declared a fugitive.
Another passenger in the vehicle, 25-year-old Jacob Sifford of Mountain Home, has been returned to the Baxter County jail after being a fugitive himself. A warrant for his arrest was issued Oct. 22 after he was a no show for a court appearance.
Sifford faces charges in two open drug-related criminal cases.
The trooper reported searching the truck and finding a glass-smoking pipe with an unidentified residue, and a container with an unidentified green residue.
In addition, a set of digital scales covered in a substance field-testing positive for methamphetamine and a syringe were located.
Whaples’ latest disappearing act began when he failed to make a court appearance in November last year and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
He was taken into custody Dec. 15, 2020 when Baxter County Deputies were investigating another case and saw Whaples in the yard of a residence along County Road 27.
According to a press release from Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery, Whaples was found to have multiple bags containing a total of almost 13 grams of a white crystalline substance field-testing positive for methamphetamine as well as used syringes.
The state dismissed two criminal cases filed against Whaples in 2019 because the evidence was not sufficient to sustain the charges.
Whaples has an established habit of fleeing. He was the subject of four manhunts in less than a year during a period in 2011-2012.
The manhunts have involved officers from multiple agencies, roadblocks, tracking dogs and the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office helicopter.
Since his first criminal case was filed in October 2011 when Whaples was 22-years-old, he has been charged with criminal trespass, fleeing, theft of property, refusal to submit to arrest, breaking or entering, commercial burglary, being a felon in possession of a firearm, criminal mischief, and possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia.
Whaples has been an inmate in the Baxter County jail since his latest arrest on December 15 last year with bond set at $50,000.
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