Wells Superior Court
Criminal Cases
Jenny Kay Breininger, 45, Bluffton, pleaded guilty to fraud, a Level 6 felony.
Sentenced to two years in prison, with all but 120 days suspended — to be served in the Wells County Jail — and placed on probation for 610 days.
Ordered to submit a DNA sample and pay court costs and probation fees. As part of a plea agreement, one count of theft, a Class A misdemeanor, was dismissed.
On June 7, 2021, Bluffton police took a report from a man who said his wallet had been stolen from his vehicle parked at his residence and the debit card in the wallet had been used to make a $96.27 purchase of three large bottles of liquor at the Save-On Liquor store at 1204 S. Main St.
Video surveillance at the store caught an image of a white female with a ponytail and tattoos using the card.
The alleged victim reportedly recognized the woman in the video as Breininger by the description given by the investigating police officer. He told the officer that he had stopped at Breininger’s house earlier in the day to collect a debt from her husband and had left his vehicle unlocked with his wallet on the console.
The alleged victim’s card had also been used for purchases of $61.59 and $16.26 at two separate gas stations in Fort Wayne.
The investigating officer reportedly contacted Breininger for an interview to hear her side of the story, but she failed to show.
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Trenton Anthony Irelan, 31, whose address on the court docket is listed as the Whitley County Jail, pleaded guilty to resisting law enforcement by use of a vehicle, operating a motor vehicle after having been found to be an habitual traffic violator, and to failing to appear in court on the charge, all Level 6 felonies.
He was credited for 298 days spent incarcerated awaiting disposition of his case.
The terms of the sentences of the charges are to be run consecutively aggregating a total of two years in prison. Ordered to pay $370 in court costs.
As part of a plea agreement, charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and reckless driving, both Class C misdemeanors, were dismissed.
While monitoring traffic at the Crossroads Pantry convenience store in Markle May 27, 2021, a state trooper saw a pickup truck at the gas pumps that he recognized from an earlier encounter and that he thought had an illegally altered month and year sticker on its license plate.
The trooper saw a female exit the store and get into the driver’s side of the pickup truck. The trooper then spot- ted a male get out of another vehicle and walk up to the driver’s side of the pickup truck and start interacting with the female. The man then walked away, but returned a short time later and started speaking to the woman again, this time from the passenger side of the pickup truck.
The trooper believed that illegal activity might be afoot.
The man then returned to a red two-door passenger car and both the pickup truck and the red car left heading northeast on Marzane Road. The trooper followed.
He drew close enough to the red car to perform a license plate check and discovered the license plate actually belonged not on a red Acura but a silver Ford Taurus. The trooper decided to pull the red Acura over. Near 700N, the Acura pulled over and the trooper started to exit his vehicle. As he did so, the Acura allegedly sped away and that began a long pursuit by the trooper that continued northeast through Zanesville at speeds exceeding 85 mph, into Allen County. The pursuit continued up through Waynedale, through downtown Fort Wayne, to New Haven, back west through and out of Fort Wayne into Whitley County on Ind. 14 where the car finally came to a stop at the intersection of Ind. 14 and Whitley County Road 800E after having all four of its tires punctured by devices placed in the road by law enforcement officers.
Irelan allegedly told the investigating trooper that he knew he was an habitual traffic violator and didn’t want to go back to prison, that’s why he fled.
He reportedly told the trooper that the woman he had been speaking with in Markle was a friend and declined to give the trooper her name.
Law enforcement located glass smoking devices inside the vehicle that contained white residue commonly associated with methamphetamine.
On July 12, 2021, Irelan was scheduled to appear in Wells Superior Court for a status hearing in connection with the earlier charges, but he failed to appear.
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Brendan Dale Sille, 21, Bluffton, pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor, and operating a vehicle with a Schedule I or II controlled substance or its metabolite in his body, a Class C misdemeanor.
Sentenced to 180 days in the Wells County Jail on the B misdemeanor and 60 days in the Wells County Jail on the C misdemeanor. The terms of the two sentences are to be served concurrently. All of the sentence was suspended and Sille was placed on probation for one year.
Ordered to serve 80 days of home detention, pay all costs associated with his blood test and pay court costs and probation fees.
As part of a plea agreement, charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class C misdemeanor; speeding, a Class C infraction; and operating a motor vehicle with a transferred license plate in excess of the 45 days permitted for use of such a license plate, a Class C infraction, were dismissed.
A sheriff’s deputy clocked an oncoming car at 65 mph-55 zone on Ind. 1 at 500N Oct, 14, 2021. The deputy turned around and pulled the car over on U.S. 224 just east of Ind. 1.
Sille was the driver and he reportedly admitted to the deputy he had no excuse to be driving that fast.
He also had not registered the vehicle after having bought it in July.
Since the vehicle was unregistered, it was subject to being towed. The deputy performed a vehicle inventory and allegedly discovered evidence of possible drug dealing including 30 hits of LSD and, bundled e-liquid cartridges containing THC — the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, a bud from a marijuana plant, bongs, three full boxes of cigarillos and a tool to open cigarillos to insert marijuana.
A juvenile passenger in Sille’s car also had $615 in cash on him folded and rubber banded together.
Both of the males claimed that they were driving to Ossian. When the deputy asked why they made a right turn at U.S. 224 when Ossian was straight ahead, Sille reportedly said he was just following his GPS.
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Keaton Dale Detrow, 21, Ossian, pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance, a Class A misdemeanor.
Sentenced to a year in the Wells County Jail, all suspended, and placed on probation for one year.
Ordered to serve 60 days of home detention, and pay court costs and probation fees.
On Oct. 9, 2021, sheriff’s deputies were assisting the Wells County Probation Department with the searches of the dwellings of probationers.
While performing the search of a room where one of the probationers stayed, deputies allegedly located two vape pens, one of which had a cartridge for Muha Meds that reportedly contained THC. There were also reportedly empty boxes in the room labeled for Muha Meds.
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Ricky Angel Jr., 36, Bluffton, pleaded guilty to invasion of privacy, a Class A misdemeanor.
Assessed court costs of $185.
Angel was charged with violating a no contact order after police spotted him sitting in the passenger seat of a parked vehicle in a parking lot Nov. 21. The vehicle he was in was reportedly registered to the person with whom the no contact order had been filed.
The party protected by the no contact order was seen exiting the business connected to the parking lot. An officer approached her and asked why he was in her vehicle. She reportedly replied she was “just trying to help him out.”
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Preliminary plea of not guilty entered for Brian W. Coblentz, 46, Geneva, charged with three counts of theft with a prior conviction for the same or a similar offense, all Level 6 felonies.
Bond reduced from $15,000 to $3,000. Pauper status denied.
Coblentz was charged with assisting Kimberly Limbert, 34, Geneva, in removing universal price code symbols from less expensive items at the Bluffton Walmart Supercenter and then applying those tags to more expensive items in order to not have to pay so much when using the scanners in the self-scan aisle.
Limbert has been charged and six counts of theft and is awaiting trial.
Among the items allegedly ticket switched included a bottle of Fabreeze fabric softener which normally costs $12.74 but for which Limbert and Coblentz allegedly paid 25 cents. They also allegedly paid 25 cents for a hooded sweatshirt that cost $19.67.
Coblentz was reported to be present with Limbert on three of the six different occasions in which Limbert had allegedly scanned ticket-switched items. During those three occasions, the two allegedly ticket switched 21 items cheating the store out of $405.87.
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Preliminary plea of not guilty entered for Ya Sin, 27, Bluffton, charged with possession of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor; operating a vehicle with a Schedule I or II controlled substance or its metabolite in his body, a Class C misdemeanor; and operating a vehicle with no license plate light and/or taillights, a Class C infraction. He was released on his own recognizance.
At 1 a.m. Feb. 12, a Bluffton police officer was monitoring traffic on Main Street when he spotted a northbound a vehicle northbound that did not have an operable driver’s side taillight. The officer turned around and pulled the vehicle over near Capri Court. Ya Sin was the driver.
The officer wrote in his report that he could smell an odor commonly associated with marijuana emanating from the vehicle.
A state trooper arrived to assist.
The officer asked Sin about the odor and he allegedly replied that he had just smoked marijuana about 20 minutes earlier at a gas station.
The officer searched Sin prior to placing him under arrest. The officer allegedly found a cigarette pack in a left sleeve pocket on Sin. Inside the cigarette pack, the officer found a small plastic bag containing a green leafy substance with the odor and appearance of marijuana.
