Matthew J. Peltz

A Vandergrift man charged with several crimes after a 2015 spree in Butler County was sentenced to state prison in Butler County Court on Tuesday.

Matthew J. Peltz, 31, was sentenced to 18 to 36 months in a state correctional institution, followed by 36 months of state probation and payment of $4,557.47 restitution on counts of felony robbery and criminal attempt to robbery of a motor vehicle before county Judge William Shaffer.

Peltz was charged with 13 criminal counts — five of them felonies — after a string of crimes, which included a store robbery, an attempted carjacking and a vehicle theft, in three separate incidents on Jan. 29, 2015, in Jefferson and Buffalo townships.

Peltz was initially charged with felony kidnapping, robbery, attempted robbery of a motor vehicle, theft and receiving stolen property, all felonies, as well as three misdemeanor counts of terroristic threats and simple assault, and one count each of theft and receiving stolen property.

He previously entered guilty pleas in the case, and the remaining charges were dismissed as part of the plea. He was also give time served credit of 391 days.

Police said the crimes began about 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2015, at the BP/Fueland store on Dinnerbell Road in Jefferson Township, where Peltz allegedly attempted to steal a 2006 Jeep Commander from a 44-year-old woman who had driven to the store and gone inside to use the ATM. When she returned to the vehicle, Peltz was hiding inside, brandished what appeared to be a handgun and told her to drive.

The woman jumped out of the vehicle, taking the keys, and Peltz ran off, police said.

Shortly thereafter, police responded to another call reporting the theft of a 1997 Jeep Cherokee from the Saxony Estates mobile home park on Driftwood Drive in Jefferson Township. The vehicle had been left running in a driveway, police said.

An hour after that vehicle was stolen, the BP/Fueland store on Ekastown Road in Buffalo Township was reportedly robbed at gunpoint. Police said the suspect, wearing a dark ski mask, dark gloves and other dark clothing, brandished what looked like a handgun and demanded money from the safe.

The Jeep Cherokee which had been stolen previously was recovered about an hour after the robbery, at the park-and-ride on Route 356 in Buffalo Township, police said. Inside, a black Velcro ski mask, a petty cash drawer with rolled coins in it, an empty green bank bag and a toy gun were found.

A tipster called the following day, reporting that Peltz was involved in the crimes, police said.

Peltz was later arrested in February 2015 for unrelated crimes, including stealing a woman's vehicle at the Fueland store in Jefferson Township.

He was later then tied to yet another stolen vehicle — this one a GMC Acadia that was left running Nov. 18, 2014, at the Saxony Estates.

Eight months later, crime lab reports were returned in January 2016 and matched a DNA profile on the mask which was found following the January incidents to Peltz.

He was then arrested on the charges in this case and held in Butler County Prison on $75,000 cash bail.