A Florida man indicted for destroying a family dwelling and then attempting to intimidate peace officers participating in the legal process against him was sentenced to serve a total of three years last week.
Johnathan Pyatt, 37, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was indicted in September of last year on charges including possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, first degree criminal mischief in the intentional destruction of a family member’s dwelling, third degree terroristic threatening, menacing, and intimidating a participant in the legal process, by threatening peace officer with physical harm in an attempt to influence them to avoid court proceedings. The terroristic threatening and menacing charges are Class A and Class B misdemeanors, respectively, while the other three charges are each Class D felonies.
Pyatt changed his plea while appearing before Judge Rebecca Phillips on Friday, pleading guilty to all counts.
Phillips accepted Pyatt’s plea and sentenced him to three years on each of his three felony counts, six months on his terroristic threatening charge, and 30 days on the menacing charge. All sentences will run concurrently, making Pyatt’s total sentence three years.
In addition to his three years of jail time, Pyatt agreed to forfeit all firearms, with the Carter County Sheriff named as the beneficiary of any such seizures.
Another condition of Pyatt’s sentence was no contact with the victims in the case. Phillips was adamant on that point, emphasizing that no contact meant, “no calling, no emails… and no sending messages through others.”
While Phillips told the defense attorney that the court found the request for probation was “not appropriate” in this case, the court would not enforce any fines or require any restitution, and given his incarcerated status court costs would be waived.
In another case, Ryan Bromwell, 39, of Olive Hill, was sentenced to a total of two years and one day in a plea deal that saw a pair of charges for assaulting police officers dropped, a charge for first degree possession of methamphetamine reduced to second degree possession of a controlled substance, and a charge of first degree fleeing or evading police on foot reduced to a second degree charge. The deal also saw his charge of receiving stolen property reduced from receiving more than $10,000.00 in stolen items to receiving between $1,000.00 and $10,000.00 in stolen property.
Bromwell was sentenced to one year and one day in the stolen property case.
He was also sentenced to one year each on two counts of first degree wanton endangerment of police officers, six months on the fleeing or evading police, 60 days on a menacing charge, one year on the drug possession charge, and 60 days on a misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia charge.
The sentences in those other cases were set to run concurrently, but consecutive to the one year and one day in the receiving stolen property case – for a total sentence of two years and one day.
Attorneys were not present in some of the cases, resulting in rescheduling. A pretrial conference in the second degree criminal mischief and second degree assault cases against Johnny Tolliver, 37, of Grayson, was rescheduled for March 18. Tolliver’s attorneys had also filed a motion for suppression on a list of 46 charges related to use of a minor under the age of 16 in a sexual performance (16 counts), possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor (16 counts) and first degree sexual abuse of a victim under 12 years of age (13 counts), and a single count of first degree sexual abuse.
Phillips also delayed her decisions in the case of Commonwealth vs Craig Horton after conferring with attorneys for the state and Horton in chambers. Phillips said “both sides recognize evidentiary issues” in the case, including that one of the substances tested was determined not to be a controlled substance – Horton was initially charged with trafficking in methamphetamine and trafficking in heroin. His attorney’s motion to suppress was withdrawn, with intentions to come back with a plea at a later date.
The Commonwealth’s case against Wayne Webber, on charges of theft by unlawful taking – over $10,000.00, first degree criminal mischief, and third degree criminal trespass was also rescheduled to March 18 due to Webber’s attorney missing the hearing.
Finally, Phillips sentenced Charles Henderson to five years of probation on a charge of first degree fleeing or evading police. Charges of reckless driving, driving on a DUI suspended license, criminal littering, third degree criminal mischief, failure to notify department of transportation of an address change, and third degree criminal trespassing were dismissed as part of the plea deal.
The Commonwealth said they had some trepidation about the deal, noting Henderson’s extensive criminal history. But, Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Barry Bradley noted, most of that criminal history was related to Henderson’s drug abuse. He said the Commonwealth would like to give Henderson a chance to rehabilitate and “urge(d him) to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Henderson’s probation will be supervised through drug court, and while Phillips did not levy a fine, she did order Henderson to pay all court costs within one year.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
