McClellan gets six years for car thefts, other cases
ZANESVILLE - A 19-year-old "public menace" whose involvement in a series of car thefts constituted "pointless, wanton destruction for thrills and financial gain" should serve a 12-year prison term, a prosecutor argued Wednesday.
In a sentencing memorandum filed Jan. 25 with Muskingum County Common Pleas Court, Assistant County Prosecutor John Litle asked for the sentence, stating that the defendant "generally created havoc for productive people" when he and other suspects "stole randomly from victims across the north side of the city."
However, Judge Mark Fleegle decided to sentence Cody L. McClellan to six years in prison, two years more than the defense's recommendation.
McClellan could have faced three decades in prison after pleading guilty to 13 felonies across four separate cases filed with the county common pleas court. The charges ranged from misdemeanors to more serious charges of theft, arson, tampering with evidence and burglary.
McClellan, who was credited with 91 days of jail time served, must pay nearly $7,000 in restitution to a number of the victims. Most of that money is to pay for a car he destroyed when he set it ablaze last August. Some of the ordered restitution is to pay for damage done to a Jeep when he ran over a deer while taking it for a joyride in June.
Once he is released from prison, McClellan will be on probation for three years; he also was ordered to register as an arson offender for the rest of his life.
Litle's sentencing memorandum outlined McClellan's "exhausting record of crime and convictions" both as a juvenile and a young adult, stating that "he has filled his young life to the brim with anti-social behavior."
Addressing the court Monday, Litle asked the judge for the 12-year sentence to teach McClellan the consequences of his actions and to demonstrate to the community that such crimes are punished harshly.
"This is a serious case. In involves serious, ongoing criminal activity," Litle said. "He needs a sentence that expresses to him that this is serious."
But McClellan's attorney, Jessica Wirick, argued that he "was not the ringleader" in the crimes, saying he had just fell in with the wrong crowd. Wirick, addressing the court, further said the prosecution's depiction of McClellan as a "criminal deviant" was inaccurate, and that most of the stolen items were later recovered undamaged.
"This is not a case of an adult criminal," Wirick said. "This is unfortunately a case of a bunch of kids messing around, doing inappropriate things."
The sentencing hearing came about a month since McClellan entered his guilty plea to four cases, the most serious of which stems from a string of car thefts, joy rides and an arson on the north end of Zanesville. The teen apologized to both the court and his family Monday, and he asked the judge for mercy.
"Everyone makes mistakes," McClellan said, addressing Fleegle. "I just hope you bless me with a second chance."
The investigation required collaboration between the prosecutor's office, the Muskingum County Sheriff's Office and the Zanesville Police Department to track down and arrest the suspects.
McClellan's indictment in that case contains one count of receiving stolen property, a vehicle, a fourth-degree felony; arson, a fourth-degree felony; two counts of tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony; two counts of theft of a motor vehicle, a fourth-degree felony; and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a second-degree felony.
The charges, for which McClellan was sentenced to three years in prison, refer to incidents on Aug. 17, June 7 and June 8 when he and a group of teens reportedly stole unlocked cars, took them for joyrides and crashed them into each other. In the August incident, officials said McClellan and Scott Tanner Mautz filmed themselves torching a 2006 Ford Fusion after stealing it and taking out its valuables.
Mautz, 20, has pleaded guilty to similar charges of arson, receiving stolen property and tampering with evidence.
Mautz also was implicated in another Aug. 29 crime with McClellan, when the pair reportedly broke into a home and stole alcohol and a $5,000 television set. McClellan received a three-year prison sentence on Monday, which is part of his six-year term.
During the evening of June 7 and early morning hours of June 8, authorities said McClellan and Elijah Norris stole three unlocked cars: a Volvo on Taylor Drive, a Jeep Cherokee on Kay Drive and a Honda on Litho Lane. All three cars were later recovered.
The suspects were captured in November after an acquaintance turned them in, according to prosecutors. According to police, both McClellan and Norris still had keys to the stolen cars when officers took them into custody in the area of McConnell Drive.
Norris, 19, is serving a one-year jail sentence for his role after he was found guilty at a trial, according to the prosecutor's office.
McClellan's six-year sentence also refers to two other cases in which he pleaded guilty, one of which contains a charge of burglary, a second-degree felony, and theft, a misdemeanor.
That case stems from an April 2014 incident in which McClellan broke into a home and stole golf clubs from the garage. A K-9 with law enforcement tracked the clubs to McClellan’s home and officers found them in the basement.
In another case, McClellan admitted to theft, a fifth-degree felony; breaking and entering, a fifth-degree felony; and two misdemeanors of theft and the misuse of a credit card, after he gained access to a vehicle on Oct. 23 and stole a purse.
Fleegle sentenced him to one year in prison on both of those cases to run concurrently to the other sentences.
elagatta@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com
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Twitter: @EricLagatta