Man sentenced to 5 years for theft
A Union County man pleaded guilty to theft by receiving involving property valued between $1,000 and $5,000 last week and was sentenced to five years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections as part of a plea agreement made with prosecutors.
William D. Lewis, 49, of El Dorado pleaded guilty last Thursday as an habitual offender to the theft charge. According to court documents, he has previously been convicted of four other felonies.
Court records say that in November, 2019, Union County Sheriff’s deputies reported to a home in reference to recovered stolen property. A man at the site said he had been the victim of a break-in the previous month, then saw the property that was stolen listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
He told deputies a woman at the
residence gave him permission to retrieve his stolen property from the home, according to court records.
In December, two people reported buying ammunition, several knives and other various hunting equipment from Lewis, court records say.
They said the same man who previously recovered his property from the residence in El Dorado had contacted them about the items, which they returned.
Lewis was subsequently arrested and a trial was scheduled for October 26. However, on July 16, Judge Hamilton Singleton accepted a plea agreement from Lewis and the state.
According to the plea agreement, in exchange for pleading guilty to the theft by receiving charge as an habitual offender, prosecutors recommended a sentence of five years in the ADC, with restitution payment still to be determined. It also noted that Lewis claimed 140 days of pretrial incarceration credit for time spent in the Union County Jail.
Lewis was still housed at the county jail as of Wednesday.