Guilty pleas but no more jail time in two court cases

Guilty pleas resolved a pair of Putnam Superior Court cases Wednesday but neither defendant will do any more jail time.

While not exactly recipients of early Christmas presents or get-out-of-jail-free cards, both Daniel R. Sparks, 28, Camby, and Jason Earl Waller, 18, Greencastle, have been released on probation with their sentences suspended but for time served.

The Sparks case is an interesting one that came to light six weeks ago. He is the Morgan County man, initially charged with dealing in methamphetamine in a September 2013 case, who had been released from jail last month pending Wednesday's hearing.

An American veteran who lost a leg in Iraq while serving his country, Sparks also has been enduring a parent's worst nightmare with his 18-month-old daughter seriously ill at an Indianapolis hospital.

Wednesday Sparks agreed to plead guilty to possession of methamphetamine, a Class C felony, in return for the court dismissing a Class B felony, dealing in methamphetamine, and a Class A misdemeanor, possession of a handgun without a permit.

Technically Sparks' sentence was four years in the Department of Correction with one year executed and three years on probation. He was given 97 days credit for time served and will do the rest on home detention.

In a Nov. 8 court hearing, Sparks' attorney, Dylan Vigh of Indianapolis, told Superior Court Judge Denny Bridges the time his client had already spent in the Putnam County Jail was well served.

Sparks experienced firsthand the impact of meth, Vigh said, and how it "leads one direction -- to despair and destitution."

A man with no prior felony convictions, Sparks simply "got off track," his attorney reasoned.

Sparks was arrested 14 months ago when a half-pound of methamphetamine -- with a reported street value of more than $5,000 -- was found under the seat of the 2003 Ford pickup in which he was a passenger. Police also discovered approximately $1,700 in cash and two loaded handguns.

Greencastle Officer Matt Huffman stopped the truck in which Sparks and two Putnam County acquaintances were traveling at the Clark station in Greencastle on Sept. 10, 2013.

Sparks' fellow passengers were later released and not cited in the incident after the defendant claimed he alone had stolen the meth from an Indianapolis residence, simultaneously taking a .25-caliber handgun.

In Wednesday's other change-of-plea case, Waller pled guilty to possession of a controlled substance and conversion, two Class A misdemeanors, in return for dismissal of a domestic battery charge from a September case.

Waller received one year on each count, served concurrently, with the sentences suspended but for time served (45 days in jail) and probation for the balance of the sentence.

The conversion charge involves an incident last Jan. 2 at Shoe Sensation, 27 Putnam Plaza, in which Waller walked out of the East Side store in a new pair of black DC sneakers, leaving his old Nikes behind. Although Waller told authorities he forget which pair of sneakers were his, the shoes left behind at the store reportedly had stray hairs inside them and dog excrement on the soles.

The probable cause affidavit indicated Waller had attempted the shoe switch at least once before and Greencastle Office Ed Wilson warned him he would go to jail if he tried it again.

Meanwhile, the possession charge came about after jailers discovered two Oxycodone pills in Waller's shoe as he was being booked into the Putnam County Jail on the domestic battery count.

Superior Court was due to handle another Class B felony case Wednesday as Kyle Dobbs, 31, Greencastle, was expected in court for an evidentiary hearing on a second petition to revoke his probation dating back to a 2011 charge of dealing in methamphetamine and other charges.

Dobbs, however, was a no-show in court and Judge Bridges indicated there is a warrant out for his arrest.