Tiffin man gets 4 years for escape, grand theft

2/8/2006

TIFFIN A Tiffin man was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison for escaping from a Seneca County jail work crew last fall and stealing a county-owned vehicle.

Michael D. Martin, 19, pleaded guilty to escape, burglary, and two counts of grand theft of a motor vehicle. Judge Steve Shuff of Seneca County Common Pleas Court sentenced Martin to the maximum of 12 months in prison for the escape charge, maximum sentences of 18 months on each of the grand theft counts, and one year in prison for the burglary charge. The prison time for the burglary count will be served concurrently to the other sentences, which will be consecutive to each other, for a total of four years.

On Oct. 17, 2005, Martin, who was a jail inmate, walked away from a work crew and stole a 1991 Jeep Cherokee from the Seneca County Maintenance Building on Jefferson Street. A month earlier, Martin stole car keys from a Tiffin home and used them to take a car to Lancaster, Ohio, Seneca County Prosecutor Ken Egbert, Jr., said.

Martin was arrested Nov. 17 in Cleveland.