Porter County Courts
January 16, 2013 1:50PM
Portage
Man admits computer store robbery
A Portage man pleaded guilty to burglarizing a Portage computer store and admitted to setting fire to it, although he didn’t plead to a Class B felony arson charge against him.
John Michael McKee, 26, will spend three years incarcerated and three on probation if Porter Superior Judge William Alexa accepts Tuesday’s plea to Class C felony burglary plea.
McKee will also spend another six months in jail for violating parole on a 2011 theft charge after the March 8 sentencing.
He broke into B&R Computers in Portage Mall on March 21, and police responded to calls of smoke coming out of the basement next to Stone Quarry.
Police found McKee pushing a shopping cart full of electronics based on witness descriptions.
Valparaiso
Man burgled former employer
A 61-year-old Valparaiso man received a three-year prison sentence Tuesday for burglarizing his former employer, across the street from where he lived.
Johnnie Seay Jr., aka Leroy Bonner, and another man broke a glass door at Thorgren Tool & Molding in the 1100 black of Evans Avenue in December 2011 and took a cash machine and a touchscreen laptop back to his apartment at Casa Del Sol.
Part of his sentence for an Oct. 5 plea to Class C felony burglary will be three years of probation after prison.
Police followed tracks in the snow to the complex and from the abandoned cash machine to Seay’s apartment.
With a search warrant, police found an iPod from another burglary, a crack pipe and multiple prescription bottles with various names, court records state.
