Habitual offender gets century behind bars
A habitual offender whose penchant for theft resulted in 20 felony convictions in a single year was sentenced to 100 years in prison by a Miller County judge earlier this month.
Doriane Clentail Norton, 39, was charged with 18 counts of breaking and entering and two counts of theft of property in connection with a rash of car break-ins in 2015, according to court records used to create the following account. In May 2015, Norton agreed to plead guilty to the 20 felonies as part of a plea agreement for one, 10-year term of probation and 19, six-year terms of probation which were ordered to run concurrently by Circuit Judge Brent Haltom.
Just over three months later, Norton was arrested by the Texarkana, Ark., Police Department for breaking and entering. As a result, a petition to revoke Norton’s 20 probations was filed and he was held in the Miller County jail without bail. At a hearing to address the pending probation revocations Sept. 14, Haltom found that Norton had violated his probation conditions and revoked all 20 terms.
Norton was sentenced to 10 years in prison on one count of theft of property and six years in prison on 15 counts each of breaking and entering.
Haltom ordered all 16 prison terms to run consecutively for a total 100-year sentence. Haltom sentenced Norton to six years suspended imposition of sentence on the remaining three counts of breaking and entering and remaining single count of theft of property. The suspended sentences will run concurrently to one another but consecutively to the 100-year cumulative sentence.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Cotten said Norton will have to serve about 25 years before he is eligible for parole.
“We are pleased with the result of the revocation hearing and Judge Haltom’s ruling,” Cotten said. “We hope it is a deterrent and warning that continuing to commit crime while on probation is not the correct path.”
When police searched the Texarkana, Ark., house where Norton was living in 2015, they recovered a large cache of stolen property including golf clubs, jewelry, medicines, cell phones, CDs, pocket knives, flash lights, tools, identification cards and personal documents which had been stolen from parked cars.
Norton is being held in the Miller County jail until he is transferred to the Arkansas Dept. of Correction.
llarowe@texarkanagazette.com