Jonathan Shuler

A Summit Township man was sentenced Thursday to state prison in three cases, after being charged with burglary and fleeing police on a farm tractor.

Jonathan R. Shuler, 30, was sentenced to 22 to 50 months in a state correctional facility by Butler County President Judge Thomas Doerr. He was also ordered to pay court costs and $7,432 in restitution.

Shuler previously pleaded guilty and was entered into the Drug Treatment Court on charges of felony criminal trespass and seven felony counts of theft. He failed to complete the program and is subject to an alternative plea to seven felony burglary counts, to which he was sentenced Thursday. He also pleaded guilty April 30 to felony agricultural crop destruction and fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, a case in which he was also sentenced Thursday.

The charges on which Shuler was admitted to the drug treatment program stem from an incident on Dec. 25, 2016, in Clearfield Township. Police said Shuler broke into a garage in the 100 block of Criley Lane before fleeing into the woods. The victim reported hearing an all-terrain vehicle in the woods and shined a spotlight in that direction, and saw Shuler on the ATV, according to court documents.

Later, police said, the homeowners discovered that missing from the garage were two guns — a Remington .30-06 pump-action rifle and a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun. The firearms are valued at a combined $900.

During a previous interview with police investigating several other break-ins he allegedly committed in the area, Shuler admitted “that he could travel to and from burglary scenes on an ATV,” according to court documents.

He also was charged with crimes between March 17 and July 28, 2016, in Center, Summit and Oakland townships, where he admitted to breaking into several homes and businesses and stealing cash, change, keys, scrap metal, a safe and other items valued at $13,085.

Shuler was then charged with felony agricultural crop destruction and fleeing or attempting to elude police, misdemeanor charges of child endangerment, agricultural vandalism and resisting arrest, and summary trespass, driving with a suspended license, careless driving and reckless driving after an incident in Summit Township on Nov. 25. He pleaded to the felony counts in that case.

State police filed the charges after a report that Shuler was driving a bright red Massey Ferguson farm tractor on Beck Road, with the caller reporting knowing he was wanted on a warrant.

Troopers found the tractor traveling east on Beck Road near Rimp Road, where Shuler lives. They pulled up next to it and identified Shuler, who was in the cab with his 9-year-old daughter.

The officers gestured for Shuler to pull over. He refused, police said, and continued down the road with multiple police cars, emergency lights on, in pursuit.

He positioned the tractor in the center of the road, according to a police affidavit, “so that troopers could not pass.”

Eventually Shuler made a left turn onto Kaiser Road, police said, before taking the chase off road and into a planted field of winter rye, nearly hitting several cruisers and causing the door on the tractor to break.

The tractor ultimately got stuck in the field and police arrested Shuler. No injuries were reported.