Two Putnamville cases yield Superior Court guilty pleas

By ERIC BERNSEE

Editor

Defendants in a pair of criminal cases connected to activity at the Putnamville Correctional Facility (PCF) pled guilty Wednesday to Class C felony counts in Putnam Superior Court.

Matthew Pavlisin, 26, a former PCF inmate, pled guilty to the Class C felony battery by means of a deadly weapon.

Pavlisin admitted he attacked fellow inmate Steven Poindexter with the classic makeshift prison weapon, a lock in a sock, in a May 27, 2012 incident.

In another PCF-related case, Michelle L. Cantrell, 33, currently incarcerated at the Rockville Women's Prison, pled guilty to trafficking with an inmate at Putnamville, her former boyfriend, Eddie Shelton, in an Oct. 13, 2012 case.

Cantrell, due to be released from Rockville on Aug. 8 in a Marion County auto theft case, will be transferred to the Putnam County Jail to await an Aug. 13 sentencing.

Pavlisin, however, was sentenced Wednesday by Superior Court Judge Denny Bridges to four years in the Indiana Department of Correction with one year of the sentence to be on probation.

Bridges will also recommend Pavlisin be incarcerated in a DOC facility in which anger management counseling is available.

Anger management, both Judge Bridges and Deputy Prosecutor James Hanner noted, appears to be at the root of many of the defendant's indiscretions, which started in Florida at age 17 and followed him to Louisville and Indiana.

The probable cause affidavit in the case indicates Pavlisin feared for his safety after hearing that Poindexter intended to do him harm for his alleged PCF inmate alliances.

The defendant thus decided to make a pre-emptive strike and attacked Poindexter with a combination lock attached to a sock.

"You do understand," Deputy Prosecutor Hanner asked Pavlisin, "a lock in a sock is a deadly weapon."

The defendant agreed and started to ramble about the circumstances when Hanner cut the conversation short by asking, "Did you put a lock in a sock and beat the living tar out of Steven Poindexter?"

Pavlisin said he did indeed.

"It's not something I did for pleasure or fun," he added. "I did it for self-defense. It was wrong, and I apologize for that. I apologize to the victim and I

apologize to the state of Indiana."

Pavlisin, who was represented by court-appointed attorney Scott Adams, had been released by the DOC on July 5, 2013 after completing a sentence on a forgery charge. Apparently DOC officials were unaware of the pending Putnam County charge against Pavlisin until he was arrested recently on a warrant in the 2012 case.

Hanner was asked for his sentencing recommendation, and after pointing out the lengthy criminal history of Pavlisin, said, "There's no way I can come off the presumptive (sentence of four years), which is a gift anyway."

Judge Bridges indicated the prosecution had done the defendant a favor in "coming off the B felony," which could have seen him sentenced to 20 years in the DOC.

Pavlisin could have faced that sentence had the felony charge not been reduced from a Class B to a Class C count in a plea agreement that dismisses charges of battery resulting in serious bodily injury and prisoner possessing a dangerous device or

material.

Meanwhile, in the Cantrell case, she pled guilty to bringing her then-boyfriend a package that contained the controlled substance Buprenorphine (Suboxone) and a cellular telephone.

PCF officers interrupted her visit with inmate Shelton after it appeared he had stuffed something down his pants, which proved to be a cell phone and 10 pills wrapped in black electrical tape and sealed in a lubricated condom.

"Have you ever done this before?" Deputy Prosecutor Hanner asked a wide-eyed Cantrell, quickly adding, "I'll bet you'll never do it again" as she uttered a faint "No" accompanied by a shake of the head.

Hanner noted that the defendant picked up the illicit package after Shelton called her from the prison, although she has maintained she did not know what it contained.

According to the plea agreement, filed Wednesday by defense attorney Darrel Felling and the Prosecutor's Office, two additional Class C felony counts

-- a second trafficking with an inmate and conspiracy to traffic -- were dismissed.

A Class C felony is punishable by 2-8 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.