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Church intruder violates probation after just a week
A 39-year-old Greencastle man was arrested Wednesday, ending his probation and home-detention commitment after just seven days.
Jon P. Hall, charged last August with a Level 6 felony charge of institutional criminal mischief for causing damage to First Christian Church, was arrested early Wednesday and appeared in Putnam Superior Court that afternoon on a petition to revoke probation.
Hall admitted he had only been on probation -- via direct commitment to home detention -- for a week before violating terms of the arrangement.
"Seven days," Judge Denny Bridges mused. "That's not a record but that's a pretty brief stint."
Hall reportedly left his home without authorization, and without his walker, which he has used to get around since suffering a lumbar fracture in the Aug. 26 incident.
That's when after breaking into the church, he fell from the ceiling of the First Christian Church sanctuary.
Hall came crashing through the chapel ceiling, falling face down in the area between the pipe organ and the altar as police officers were investigating the report of a pre-dawn break-in at the 110 S. Indiana St. church.
Earlier that morning, the suspect reportedly tossed a concrete flower pot through the church window about 3:45 a.m.
The incident came less than two weeks after a number of church vandalisms were reported locally, including damage to the First Christian sign. Another suspect has since been charged in those incidents, however.
For his role in damaging church property, Hall was sentenced on Dec. 23 to six months of home detention after getting credit for 119 actual days served in Putnam County Jail. He was also ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution to First Christian.
By Wednesday morning that sentence was essentially rendered null and void.
At 12:41 a.m. Dec. 30 Hall had been arrested after being "tracked down somewhere in Putnam County," Deputy Prosecutor Justin Long told the court.
"So you left your walker and went for a little stroll," Judge Bridges said, indicating the only option left to him was for Hall to do more jail time.
"Community Corrections is not going to want you back," he told Hall in the aftermath of the defendant violating home detention.
With his probation revoked, Hall was ordered returned to the Putnam County Jail.
"Do you have your walker down at the jail?" Judge Bridges asked.
Hall indicated he did not, adding that he likewise had no one who could bring it to him.
The judge, glancing in the direction of jail officials in the courtroom, including Sheriff Scott Stockton, suggested they might perhaps stop and pick up Hall's walker on the way back to PCJ.
Stockton nodded.
"We'll figure it out, judge," he said.