Starke County Home Detention Runaway Sentenced

Starke County Courthouse

A Starke County inmate who escaped from home detention was sentenced in Starke Circuit Court Wednesday morning.

Robert Spencer pleaded guilty to Escape, a Class B Felony, and Criminal Mischief, a Class D Felony, in a plea agreement with the State. He also committed a probation violation. He admitted that he was on home detention and cut off his ankle monitor and fled. Starke County Community Corrections staff convinced him to turn himself in and he did.

During the course of the hearing, Judge Kim Hall said that the probation department indicated in a pre-sentence investigation that Spencer was a “career criminal” and has no regard for law enforcement and the court. The judge took that into consideration before Spencer was sentenced, along with the fact that Spencer had been to prison three times. He was previously sentenced in Starke Circuit Court for nine and a half years for meth-related charges and Burglary.

Judge Hall sentenced Spencer to a total of 54 months in the Department of Corrections with none of the sentence suspended. Spencer was given 205 days credit for time served and Judge Hall told Spencer not to ask for a sentence modification because he will not accept it. Spencer was also ordered to pay $250 restitution to replace an ankle monitor.