A husband and wife from Mountain Home entered guilty pleas to charges stemming from their possession of a pickup truck reported stolen in Pine Bluff in December 2014.
Fifty-two-year-old John Gant was given eight years probation and his 47-year-old wife Dorothy was given a 12-month misdemeanor probation sentence during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court last week.
The Gants were arrested after a routine traffic stop along State Highway 126 North in early June last year when officers observed the license plate on the vehicle the couple was in had expired and did not belong on the truck on which it was displayed.
The officers asked John Gant to provide documents, including proof of vehicle registration. He told the officers he had only recently purchased the truck and had not had time to complete the registration process. Insurance information told a different story. It showed the Gants had insured the truck about three months prior to the June 2017 traffic stop.
The insurance papers were in Dorothy Gant’s name.
When asked to provide the name of the former owner of the truck, John Gant initially said he could not remember. After a time, he said he thought he purchased it from a man living on the Arkansas/Missouri state line named Cobb.
Investigators determined the truck had been reported stolen by a man in Pine Bluff.
In addition to probation, the Gants were ordered to pay $2,600 in restitution. John Gant was sentenced under the provisions of Act 346, meaning if he stays out of trouble during his probation period, he will be able to apply to the courts to have his records sealed.
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