Wells Superior Court
Criminal Cases
Preliminary plea of not guilty entered for Patti L. Powell, 55, Jacksonville, Ar., charged with theft, a Class A misdemeanor.
Powell is charged with skip-scanning a package of meat valued at $7.28 at the Walmart Supercenter in Bluffton Nov. 4. Reportedly she brought two packages of meat to the self-scanner, stacked one pack on top of the other, and scanned only the one package.
She has reportedly denied doing the activity deliberately.
The report further noted that Powell was involved in a similar incident at the Huntington Walmart Supercenter recently.
Amanda Don Soultz, 30, Bluffton, pleaded guilty to resisting law enforcement by use of a vehicle, a Level 6 felony.
Sentenced to a year in prison, with all but 30 days suspended and placed on probation for 335 days. Credited for 12 days spent in confinement awaiting disposition of her case.
Ordered to submit a DNA sample, pay court costs and probation fees.
Soultz was also ordered to surrender herself to two separate counties seeking her on outstanding warrants — Elkhart County for violating probation from an original charge of visiting a common nuisance, a Class B misdemeanor, and St. Joseph County on one count of false informing, a Class B misdemeanor.
At 2:18 a.m. Nov. 16, while monitoring traffic on West Lancaster Street, a Bluffton police officer spotted an eastbound 2001 Ford Focus with a headlight out. The officer pulled out behind the Focus and attempted to pull it over, but the vehicle did not stop. It continued eastbound into the gravel parking lot at Mitchell Enterprises on West Lancaster and both the male driver and the female passenger, later identified as Soultz, bailed out of the vehicle.
The male and the female both reportedly ran away south, with the male running around the corner of the Mitchell warehouse building — with the officer yelling for both to stop. The officer then lost sight of the man in the shadows but could still see the female running under the security lights at Mitchell and nearby Steffen Oil.
The officer eventually caught up with Soultz in the parking lot of the Wells County Recycling Center and took her to the ground, suffering an injury to his knee in the process.
Soultz allegedly at first claimed she did not know the man from the vehicle and that he had just offered her a ride. She also allegedly smelled of alcohol and appeared intoxicated. A Breathalyzer test reportedly showed her alcohol concentration equivalency to be .77 percent.
She also claimed to be at the house of a friend named “Sam” in Bluffton named “Sam” but she told the investigating officer she did not know “Sam’s” last name. She reportedly told the officer that the only reason she ran from him was because the male driver told her to run.
Other officers had arrived on scene at this point and they performed a license plate check on the vehicle. The vehicle’s owner turned out to be a Marion woman who said she had given the car to her estranged son-in-law who was supposed to “take the car to the junk yard.”
The officer informed the car owner that the car had not been taken to any junk yard.
The investigating officer also noted in his report to the court that the interior of the Focus also smelled of marijuana.
———
Juan Encarnacion Chacon, 33, whose address is listed as the Wells County Jail, violated probation by being arrested on charges of driving while suspended, disorderly conduct and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Ordered to serve 20 days in the Wells County Jail and pay $125 in fees.
Upon completion of his sentence, his probation will terminate.
He was originally sentenced Oct. 21, 2021, on one count of driving while suspended with a prior conviction for the same offense, a Class A misdemeanor.
As part of a plea agreement, charges of driving while suspended, a Class A misdemeanor; disorderly conduct, a Class B misdemeanor; possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class C misdemeanor; operating a motor vehicle with false and/or fictitious license plate, open alcoholic beverage container during operation of a motor vehicle, disregarding a traffic control device and operating a motor vehicle without insurance, all Class C infractions, were dismissed for Chacon.
———
Bench trial set for 9 a.m. Feb. 24 for Melissa Marie Buzzard, 30, rural Portland, charged with theft, a Class A misdemeanor, and criminal mischief, a Class B misdemeanor.
———
Quillen Wade Riesen, 26, Vera Cruz, pleaded guilty to driving while suspended, a Class A misdemeanor.
Sentenced to a year in the Wells County Jail, all suspended, and placed on probation for one year.
Ordered to make a good faith effort to obtain valid driving privileges, pay court costs and probation fees.
As part of a plea agreement, one count of operating a motor vehicle without insurance was dismissed.
A sheriff’s deputy was patrolling east on Harrison Road Aug. 10 when he decided to perform a check on the license plate of a 1999 Buick Century in front of him. The deputy discovered the registered owner — Riesen — had a suspended driver’s license. The deputy pulled the Buick over.
Riesen had a prior conviction in June in Adams County for driving while suspended and reportedly his license is not eligible for reinstatement until Nov. 8, 2024.
———
Matthew Tyler Elston, 40, rural Bluffton, pleaded guilty to driving while suspended, a Class A misdemeanor.
Sentenced to a year in the Wells County Jail, with all but four days suspended, and placed on probation for 361 days.
Ordered to make a good faith effort to obtain valid driving privileges and pay court costs and probation fees.
As part of a plea agreement, one count of speeding, a Class C infraction, was dismissed.
A sheriff’s deputy was monitoring traffic on Main Street in Liberty Center Aug. 18 when he clocked Elston northbound in a 2008 Chevrolet Malibu at 46 mph-30 zone. The deputy pulled it over and upon performing a driver’s license check, discovered that Elston has two active suspensions against his driver’s license and three prior convictions.
———
Bench trial set for Nov. 22 for Victor Waters, 55, Bluffton, charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person, a Class A misdemeanor; 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; operating a motor vehicle without insurance, a Class A infraction; and following another vehicle too closely, a Class C infraction.
———
Adrian Anthony Phillip James Book, 31, Bluffton, pleaded guilty to theft, a Class A misdemeanor.
Sentenced to a year in the Wells County Jail, with all but two days suspended — credited as time served, and placed on probation for 363 days.
Ordered to pay $444.59 in restitution to Walmart Stores East, court costs and probation fees.
As part of a plea agreement, 12 additional counts of theft, all Class A misdemeanors, were dismissed.
Book, along with Patience Renee Arkwright, 24, Bluffton, participated in a series of “skip-scanning” events at the Bluffton Walmart Superstore beginning Thursday, May 26, and terminating Thursday, June 27.
On some of the occasions they were together and on others they were by themselves.
Skip scanning is where a customer deliberately fails to scan certain items of merchandise at the self-scan aisles at a store.
He and Arkwright skip scanned a number of items during the period including dining plates, flatware, diapers, socks, steaks, weed trimmer string, and numerous grocery items. The restitution amount is the value of the items stolen.
Arkwright pleaded guilty to one count of theft Oct. 17 and was sentenced to a year in the Wells County Jail with all but six days suspended. Those six days were credited to her as time served and she was placed on probation for 359 days. She was also ordered to pay $423.91 to Walmart in restitution for the items that she was charged with stealing when she was by herself.
Probation transferred from Delaware County to Wells County for Brian R. Schuyler, 64, Ossian, sentenced Nov. 7 in Delaware County for operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a prior conviction for the same offense within the past seven years, a Level 6 felony.
The duration of probation is until Nov. 6, 2023.
Ordered to report to a substance abuse program, pay an intrastate probation transfer fee and probation fees — in addition to the stipulations in the Delaware County Circuit Court sentencing order.
———
Probation transferred from Huntington County to Wells County for David N. Koedel, 25, Bluffton, charged with violating probation from a July 18, 2016, sentencing in Huntington Circuit Court on six counts of burglary, all Level 5 felonies, and one count of using a motor vehicle in the commission of a crime, a Level 5 felony.
Probation is to be served until April 19, 2023.
Ordered to pay probation transfer fees and probation users fees.
