Garritt McConnell Dustin Hartman
A 32-year-old Hutchinson man hurt in the accident in Barton County earlier this year, then sent back to prison on multiple convictions in both Reno and McPherson Counties, may be headed back to prison again.
Garritt McConnell was arrested early Tuesday in Hutchinson after the owner of Dodge Ram pickup allegedly caught him and 35-year-old Dustin Hartman breaking in. This in the 3300 block of Ridgewood. Police were then able to catch up with him in the 900 block of East 30th Terrace and he was arrested without incident.
McConnell made a first appearance Wednesday morning on a charge of auto burglary and felony theft. Police Detective Darrin Cox says the owner caught the two in the process and they ran away.
McConnell was involved in an accident back in December up in Barton County when he crossed the center line in his vehicle, hit a culvert post traveling west into the north ditch where it hit an embankment, became airborne and landed on the west side of the road and rolled 2 ½ times before coming to rest in a field on it’s side. He was badly injured and taken to a Wichita hospital. He was an absconder from the Kansas Department of Corrections and was sent back to prison on a parole violation. He was released once again last month according to Cox.
He had been sentenced to serve 53-months in prison for burglary, flee and elude, forgery, theft and possession of meth in two cases out of Reno County. All of the convictions were for cases from 2007, but also for convictions in McPherson County for forgery and theft from 2008.
McConnell was convicted of breaking into a show home at 200 Kisiwa Village in Hutchinson and attempting to steal a large television in the early morning hours of January 29, 2007. Apparently, police saw the suspect vehicle, but he then took off heading east out of Hutchinson, and then managed to get away. Police said they lost sight of the vehicle around 43rd & Kent Road in the county. That occurring about 4:20 a-m that morning. He was located later that night at the Trails West Motel in South Hutchinson, and drugs were found in the room. The forgery and theft case goes back to March 11, 2007.
He has a 5-thousand dollar bond for this latest case, but once again has a parole hold, so he may be in prison once again on the Reno and McPherson County cases. He’s expected back in court on the new case next week.
Hartman was arrested Wednesday morning at the Reno County Courthouse for auto burglary, and felony theft. He was also arrested for violation of his community corrections on a conviction of forgery and making a false writing in 2009. He’s jailed on a bond of 65-hundred dollars and unless he makes bond, should make a first appearance in court Thursday.