Stokes Sentenced On Burglary
WARSAW — Mack Samuel Stokes, 43, 4330 N. Old SR 15 Lot 41, Warsaw, was sentenced today for a level 5 felony of burglary.
Stokes is to serve six years at the Indiana Department of Corrections, with four of those years suspended. Stokes was given jail-time credit of 680 days. As part of his probation he to is have mental health assessment done through the Bowen Center and must follow all of their recommendations.
During his sentencing, the female victim who lived in the residence Stokes broke into read a letter to the court. The woman told the judge how she had heard creaking on her floorboards and went to investigate. When she entered the room that Stokes was in she asked him, “What are you doing in my house?” Stokes mumbled a reply of, “Oh, I must be in the wrong house,” and he left the house.
The woman ran to get her son, who lived downstairs. The son grabbed his gun and ran out the door firing shots in the air, while chasing Stokes. Stokes jumped into his car and tried to run the woman’s son over, but the son shot out Stokes’ back window.
The woman read from her letter stating how she used to keep her windows and door open to let a breeze in, but now everything is locked. She says that now she carries a gun because she’s afraid all the time, even though it’s been two years, “I’m a prisoner in my own home!”
Stokes attorney, Scott Lennox, mentioned that since Stokes has been in jail and taking his medication the difference in him is like “night and day.”
Stokes told the court, “I regret the situation.”