Austin Ayers

An Evans City man was sentenced Thursday to probation after being charged with soliciting a teenage boy to fire a BB gun into a Jefferson Township home in February.

Austin J. Ayers, 19, was sentenced to one year of county probation by Butler County Judge William Shaffer. He was also ordered to pay court costs and $495.87 in restitution, as well as complete 20 hours of community service within three months.

Ayers pleaded guilty April 23 to misdemeanor conspiracy to commit recklessly endangering another person.

His attorney, assistant public defender Ryan Helsel, said Ayers is self-employed and asked for the community service in lieu of fines. Shaffer said he was “more interested in the victim being made whole” than fines, and imposed the community service.

Ayers was initially charged with two felony counts of conspiracy to commit the crimes of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, as well as misdemeanor illegal possession of a stun gun and reckless endangerment, after an incident in the 200 block of Neupert Road, Jefferson Township, on Feb. 2.

One of the felony charges and the illegal possession of a stun gun charge were later withdrawn at the district court level and the misdemeanor charge to which he pleaded was later added.

State police filed the charges after troopers responded to the home of Heidi Sloan and Justin Castilyn for a report of a projectile hitting the window. The home also was occupied by two young children. No one was injured.

Investigators found a hole in the bedroom window caused by “a metal BB,” according to court documents.

Police said later it was found that Ayers posted a Facebook comment saying he had “filled” the victims' “windows full of BBs,” according to the criminal complaint. He was later arrested at his home on Prospect Road, and police said he was found wearing a holster for a Taser, which police said he is prohibited by law from possessing because of his prior criminal record. That charge was later withdrawn.

Police said they also found a 17-year-old boy at Ayers' home, who they did not identify. The boy, documents said, admitted shooting at the house with a BB gun. He turned over the suspected gun used in the incident, police said.

The teen said Ayers gave him the gun and told him “just do it,” according to a police affidavit, meaning to shoot the house.

Ayers was later released from Butler County Prison after posting $50,000 bail.