Fillmore couple facing six felonies for burglary string

Monday, June 29, 2020
April Sult

A Fillmore couple, accused of burglarizing three neighbors’ residences, are facing six felony counts in Putnam Superior Court.

April Nicole Sult, 35, and Gary Todd Leitzman, 55, are each facing:

-- Three counts of burglary, a Level 4 felony that carries a sentence of 2-12 years in prison.

Gary Leitzman

-- Three counts of conspiracy to commit burglary, also a Level 4 felony.

-- Three counts of theft, a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.

Sult and Leitzman appeared before Judge Denny Bridges via video conference on Friday. A not-guilty plea was entered on behalf of both suspects.

Bond was set at $30,000 cash only for both defendants.

Attorney James Hanner was appointed as counsel for Leitzman, while Sult will be represented by Kyle Swick of Danville.

The case began to unfold on May 23 when Putnam County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a Fillmore residence at which numerous items had been reported stolen, including multiple hand tools and small lock boxes. The back door to the residence showed obvious signs of forced entry with the door frame broken and pry marks on the door itself, Deputy Jeff Freeman reported.

According to the probable cause affidavit in the case, a neighbor’s camera captured two suspects and their vehicle, a small white or gray SUV, on camera. The suspects were shown carrying items out of the residence between 5 and 6 p.m.

On June 13, an overnight burglary was reported at a second Fillmore residence. Deputy Derrick Line that the homeowners had gone camping two days earlier and returned to find their residence had been entered through the back door.

Again another neighbor’s video camera captured two slender individuals carrying items out of the residence between 1:55 and 2:50 a.m. The video shows the pair walking toward the nearby residence Sult and Leitzman share with her father.

More video footage discovered June 14 reportedly shows the suspects carrying multiple items from a nearby backyard shed.

Deputy Line said the video camera owner was able to identify Sult and Leitzman as the suspects caught on tape.

Subsequently, PCSD deputies obtained a search warrant for the residence where Sult and Leitzman were living.

Detectives Don Pettit, Doug Nally and Matt Biggs, joined by Deputies Line and Josh Boller discovered several large handbags and a backpack in the bedroom. Inside one of the bags was the Indiana driver’s license of yet another Filmore victim who was in Florida at the time.

Det. Pettit responded to the address of the third victim and discovered that home also had been burglarized and one room ransacked.

Sult and Leitzman were subsequently detained and transported to the Putnam County Jail.

In an interview with PCSD detectives, Sult couldn’t explain why a video reportedly showed her walking away with Leitzman from the first burglary scene and how items from that home were found in her bedroom.

Asked about other items discovered in her home, Sult said they had been left along the roadside as trash in her initial story, later changing it to say she had cleaned out someone’s house.

The suspect also admitted to snorting a line of bath salts, telling detectives, “I have no idea what I took, I was high.”

She later admitted to taking the bags from the residence where the owners were in Florida, included inside the bags was $800 in cash she said came out of a birthday card.

Leitzman, meanwhile, told detectives Sult was high on methamphetamine and “out of control” when she broke into the initial residence while claiming the victim owed her money.

He acknowledged that Sult took jewelry, DVDs, a camera, an easy jump starter, two black safe boxes, a metal detector and several purses, adding that 90 percent of the loot was still at the suspects’ residence.

Leitzman also claimed to have been home sleeping while Sult went out and burglarized the home of the couple staying in Florida.

A pretrial conference in the case has been set for Aug. 26 with an Oct. 27 jury trial date scheduled.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: