State objects to sentence modification for Smoot

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Putnam County Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter has filed an objection to a petition for the modification of the sentence of a Greencastle man sentenced in April to prison time on a drug dealing charge.

Michael Smoot, 45, was convicted of Class C felony dealing in cocaine and sentenced to six years in prison on April 2. On July 6, Smoot filed a pro se motion for sentence modification.

"The defendant presents no real change in circumstances about the sentence, and only three months have passed since the defendant was sentenced," Bookwalter said.

Smoot has been at the Putnam County Jail since he was arrested in October. He was originally charged with Class A felony dealing in cocaine, but the charge was downgraded in accordance with the terms of a plea agreement.

Putnam County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Headley ordered that Smoot would spend three years of his sentence at the Indiana Department of Correction, one year as a direct commitment of Putnam County Community Corrections and two years on probation. He received credit for 175 days he had already been in jail.

Smoot is listed as "central office admin inbound" on the IDOC Web site. His earliest possible release date is listed as April 4, 2010.

Officers from the Greencastle ERT Team went to conduct a search on Smoot's Greencastle home on March 22, 2008, after a confidential informant purchased nine bags of cocaine from Smoot there, court records said. Someone tipped Smoot off that police were looking for him, and by the time officers showed up at his home Smoot had fled.

Smoot remained on the lam for six months. He took his wife and toddler daughter and went to Indianapolis, and was arrested during a traffic stop.

At his sentencing, Smoot said his incarceration had caused great hardship for his family. Smoot's wife and daughter moved back to Putnam County after his arrest.

Smoot said in court that he hadn't thought he would be charged and that he was scared.

The state asked for an eight-year sentence with five years executed for Smoot.

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  • Think of your wife and toddler before the cocaine. If you can not do the time, tough boy,do not do the crime.

    -- Posted by cletis on Sat, Jul 18, 2009, at 1:04 PM
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