Man accused of breaking into home
A man possibly impaired on drugs is accused of forcing his way into a next-door neighbor's home Sunday evening in Connoquenessing Township, authorities said.
State police arrested 32-year-old Mitchell J. Ferguson, who they said admitted to breaking into the home on Rolling Valley Lane because he thought his girlfriend was there. She wasn't.
District Judge Sue Haggerty on Monday arraigned Ferguson on felony charges of burglary and trespass, a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and summary charges of harassment, criminal mischief and public drunkenness. He is in the Butler County Prison in lieu of $40,000 bond and a probation violation.
The victim told investigators that she was in her bedroom around 6 p.m. when she heard a loud noise coming from the main door at her home, police said. She went to check and found Ferguson inside.
She also recounted seeing that her door, which had been locked, was open with pieces of it on the living room floor, police said.
The man ran toward her and apparently asked where his girlfriend was, according to charging documents. He then went out the door and ran into the woodline behind the victim's backyard.
Troopers found Ferguson at his home. His jeans were covered in mud, police said, and he was sweating and appeared out of breath.
“Ferguson spontaneously uttered that he had broken into (his neighbor's) residence,” documents said, “because he (thought) his girlfriend was in trouble,” documents said.
Police said he admitted to forcing in the door by running into it shoulder-first.
Later, police contacted the defendant's girlfriend, who told them that he had recently been using methamphetamine, according to the documents, “and he had been acting abnormal.”
His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Online court records did not indicate if he has an attorney.
This was not Ferguson's first brush with the law. State police previously arrested him after they said he robbed the Dollar General store on Route 8 in Brady Township on Aug. 27, 2017.
A clerk told police that the robber, wearing a Led Zeppelin shirt and blue jeans, walked up to the counter and demanded money.
“I am going to need you to open up your register and give me all of the money in it,” police said he told the clerk.
When the clerk opened the cash register, the robber reached over the counter and snatched $213 that was in the drawer, police said, and ran out the front door.
In 2018, Ferguson pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony count of robbery in the case, court records showed. He was sentenced to 11½ to 23 months in the county prison followed by five years of probation.
