Joshua Space

BUTLER TWP — A Butler County Prison inmate faces more charges for attempting to enter a number of vehicles and garages earlier this year.

In the latest case against him, Joshua J. Space, 26, of Butler Township has been accused of taking prescription medication from a car.

District Judge Kevin O'Donnell arraigned Space on Monday on two counts of theft from a vehicle, three counts of receiving stolen property and 18 counts of loitering or prowling at night, all misdemeanors.

The defendant has been in the Butler County Prison since Jan. 28 when Butler Township police arrested him on a bench warrant. Township police and state police later charged him with stealing guns from vehicles.

In the recent case, police said, Space broke into a car at a home on Kennedy Drive on or around Jan. 28 and took medication — Adderall and gabapentin — valued at $200.

He also allegedly entered a pickup truck on Plateau Street and took $6 in currency.

Additionally, he is accused of trying to enter other vehicles and garages or linger outside homes in the township around that same time.

During an interview, according to court documents, Space admitted to ransacking vehicles in the Meridian area. He also allegedly admitted to taking the drugs from the vehicle on Kennedy Drive.

Police said he took part in a ride along with investigators, showing them the homes where he tried to get into vehicles or garages.

The properties include six homes on the 300 block of Sawmill Run Road, four on Plateau Street, three on the 4000 block of Kennedy Drive, two on North Breezewood Drive and one each on the 400 block of South Eberhart Road, Bramble Avenue and East Drive.

Police said that following Space's arrest, they recovered several items reported stolen from two vehicles at a Ragan Road home in Connoquenessing Township. The items were allegedly located in a Butler home where he had been staying.

He subsequently admitted to taking those items as well, documents said. His preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled March 14.

Space is already facing a preliminary hearing March 13 on unrelated charges that state police filed last month.

Troopers said Space in that case confessed that he took a .45-caliber pistol and six fentanyl patches from a Saxonburg Road home Jan. 15 in Jefferson Township.

“He admitted to trading the firearm for drugs,” documents said.

Space, meanwhile, has seven other cases pending in Butler County court. He is accused in one of those cases of stealing handguns from two vehicles in Butler Township in early September.

Charges in the other pending cases, all from 2018, include drug possession in Butler; two burglaries and several thefts from vehicles, all in Connoquenessing Township; and driving under the influence in Butler Township.

Prison officials said his combined bail is $80,000.