Photo: Mac Ryan Chitwood
A man from Lonoke, who was released from the Arkansas Department of Corrections’ Varner Supermax facility in Gould Monday, was arrested upon his release by Baxter County Sheriff’s Deputies on charges from nearly five years ago. Thirty-one-year-old Mac Ryan Chitwood, who has a lengthy criminal record in the state, is also wanted on charges in Sharp and White counties. He just finished serving over four and a half years of a ten year sentence from Izard and Sharp counties for commercial burglary, battery, breaking and entering, theft of property and criminal mischief. It was his second time in the state prison system.
According to the affidavit in the Baxter County case, Chitwood is facing five felony charges for his role in the breaking and entering and theft of items, including a car and guns, from a home in Elizabeth, along with the theft of items from a boat at a nearby dock. Chitwood was accompanied in the crimes by Dalton Pflaumer of Elizabeth, who was 18 at the time.
Photo: Dalton Pflaumer
The Baxter County Sheriff’s Office was notified July 11, 2016 by Sharp County officers of a vehicle pursuit they had involving Chitwood in which he allegedly shot at officers with a handgun. The car Chitwood was driving during the pursuit was registered to a couple from the St. Louis area which they told officers they kept at their vacation home in Elizabeth. They also told law enforcement they kept a gun matching the description of the one used by Chitwood to fire at deputies in their vacation home.
Baxter County investigators went to the residence and determined it had been burglarized and the handgun along with a shotgun were missing. Authorities also learned Chitwood was a suspect in the burglary of First Baptist Church in Horseshoe Bend the previous night where a church van was stolen.
During an interview with investigators, Chitwood admitted he and Pflaumer had taken the van and drove it to the Hand Cove area where they got it stuck in the woods and then walked to the residence in Elizabeth. He said they found a key to the house, took the guns and then left in the stolen car. He said the two parted ways later that night and he kept the car and handgun and Pflaumer took the shotgun.
On July 12, Pflaumer was interviewed and corroborated Chitwood’s story. He said Chitwood dropped him off at Brockwell and he left on foot while Chitwood still had the stolen car.
A report of stolen items from a boat moored at a private dock in Henderson was taken during the same time frame. Investigators found a cell phone belonging to Pflaumer that was left on the boat. During the interview, Pflaumer told authorities he and Chitwood had burglarized the boat. Some items were thrown in the lake while some had been left at the residence in Elizabeth where authorities recovered them.
Pflaumer was convicted of charges in Baxter County Circuit Court in 2017 and sentenced to six years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections. He is currently housed at the Cummins Unit in Grady.
Chitwood is charged with felony counts of residential burglary, theft of property, theft by receiving, breaking or entering and theft of property. He is being held in the Baxter County Detention Center on a $50,000 bond with holds placed on him for warrants out of Sharp and White Counties.
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