New Middeltown chase suspect sentenced to prison
The man who sent local authorities on a wild goose chase in Mahoning County last December is going to prison.
Mahoning County Grand Common Pleas Judge Scott Krichbaum has sentenced 30-year-old Brandon Bennett to one year in the Ohio Penitentiary.
Bennet pleaded guilty in February to charges of inducing panic and theft.
Bennett, who gives addresses in Hubbard and New Middletown, ran from police when they responded to complaints about intoxication and fireworks at a New Middletown mobile home park.
When Bennett returned to the trailer park he was arrested. Police say Bennett led them to believe that he had been with an accomplice.
While officials interviewed two other individuals Bennett escaped through a cruiser window and fled.
Acting on the belief that Bennett and his alleged partner had stolen a vehicle to elude authorities, nine area police agencies, U.S. Marshals, as well as a helicopter from the Ohio State Highway Patrol searched the area.
Bennett was captured soon after the truck crashed, but the search for the alleged accomplice continued.
Classes started two hours late at Springfield Local schools due to the search.
Bennett later confessed that he made up the story about the involvement of the second suspect, who was actually working in a restaurant in Oklahoma City, more than 900 miles away.