CLEARFIELD – A Munson man charged with threatening another man with a gun was sentenced Tuesday during plea and sentencing court.
Ricky Lee Hutton, 59, was sentenced to 30 days to one year in jail for simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, terroristic threats and a summary count of harassment by Judge Paul E. Cherry.
He was also ordered to complete 50 hours of community service and anger management program.
The charges stem from an incident near his home in Morris Township April 2.
It was a condition of his plea agreement that he surrender all guns registered to him. Of the five guns registered to Hutton, police discovered one had been sold and another was not turned in.
Hutton said it was stolen but the local police had no report of such a crime. In order to help with the piece of mind of the victim, Cherry ordered a search of Hutton’s residence and out buildings to either find it, or confirm Hutton did not have it.
Prior to sentencing, the victim addressed the court. He seemed unhappy with the plea, stating that 30 days in jail is “the going rate for a convicted felon threatening someone.”
Once Hutton is released, he said he expects Hutton will continue to threaten and intimidate both him and his family. When they pass Hutton’s residence he often makes obscene gestures at them, he said.
“We just want to be left alone to enjoy our property that we paid dearly for,” he said.
“If he violates, he will have no one to blame but himself,” Cherry said, indicating that conduct would be a probation violation and Hutton would be returned to jail.
This latest crime was a violation of Hutton’s current probation on a felony theft charge from 2013. His probation was revoked and he was sentenced to 30 days to one year in jail and one year consecutive probation. The revocation sentence will run consecutive to the new sentence, giving him a total sentence of 60 days to two years in jail.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, the victim told police he was on his son’s property clearing trees and brush when he noticed all the red ribbons he and his son put up were gone.
While he was working, Hutton came over and told the victim he was on Hutton’s property. The victim knew he was not on Hutton’s property and continued to work.
Hutton next pulled onto the property in an UTV to stop the victim from working. The victim moved to a different part of the job and continued to work, he said.
When he finished, he went back to where Hutton was and told him to move so he could continue to work. The victim said Hutton got extremely mad and wouldn’t move. The victim told Hutton to move or he would move his buggy with his skid steer. Hutton just laughed.
As the victim turned his skid steer, Hutton pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the victim. “Go ahead and try to move it,” the victim said Hutton told him.
The victim said to put the gun away as he reached for his phone. He told Hutton he was calling police. Hutton then drove away to his garage.
The victim called his wife and asked her to call police because he was shaking so bad and kept fumbling with the phone, he said.
Hutton came back but when he started to get out of the UTV, the victim yelled at him letting him know he had called police. Hutton then jumped back into his UTV and left, the victim told police.