Michael Ransom Hobbs II of Mountain Home was sentenced to 11 years in prison during a session of Baxter County Court Monday.
The sentence covered two cases — one filed in 2017 and the other in 2018 — in which revocation petitions had been filed.
In addition to the two revocation cases, Hobbs still faces charges in a thicket of criminal cases, most of which are drug related.
Since the first criminal case was filed against Hobbs in 2016, other cases were opened in 2017, 2018, 2021, 2023 and 2024.
Hobbs has had at least five attorneys – either from the Public Defender’s Office or hired privately to represent him. His most recent lawyer, John Barttelt of Hardy, entered his appearance on Feb. 27.
In addition, Hobbs has also represented himself.
During the period when he was his own attorney, Hobbs filed a blizzard of motions, most espousing legal theories more compatible with the off-the-wall thinking of groups such as the Sovereign Citizen than with more “conventional” law.
THE CASES
Hobbs’ arrest in 2017 came in late July when officers from the Mountain Home Police Department went to a residence to locate a person listed as a suspect in a terroristic threatening case.
They did not locate the person who had brought them to the residence but did find Hobbs and two other people in the apartment.
When officers began announcing themselves and knocking on the front door of the apartment, they reported no one let them in, but through the back door, which was slightly ajar, two males could be seen.
Hobbs, who was on felony probation for theft and drug violations, was one of the men. The other male was also reported to be on felony probation. A woman was also in the apartment.
Drugs and drug paraphernalia were found, including methamphetamine, used syringes, marijuana and glass smoking pipes
Hobbs told police he had stopped by the apartment while walking to his own residence.
In the 2018 case, Hobbs was accused of selling drugs to a person working with law enforcement.
Since his first cases were filed in 2016, Hobbs’ charges have included theft of property, criminal trespassing, contempt of court and multiple drug-related charges including possession of methamphetamine and paraphernalia used to make methamphetamine.
According to the probable cause affidavit in the case that triggered the filing of revocation petitions in the 2017 and 2018 cases, Hobbs was arrested in July 2021 after being found “passed out” in a vehicle at a Mountain Home apartment complex.
Police report the engine of Hobbs’ vehicle was running, the gear selector was in drive and Hobbs had his foot on the brake.
Officers and paramedics were able to wake Hobbs and he was told he was being arrested for public intoxication. Police claim Hobbs admitted that he was too impaired to drive.
Officers reportedly found almost 100 grams of suspected methamphetamine in Hobbs’ car, along with 62 Oxycodone pills and a small quantity of marijuana.
Various items of paraphernalia used to ingest as well as to package drugs for sale were also located in the vehicle.
Hobbs’ defense attorney attacked the underpinnings of the 2021 case since if it was thrown out, the revocations in the 2017 and 2018 cases would have been be dismissed.
Circuit Judge John Putman did find that there were large gaps in the chain of custody for the drugs found in Hobbs vehicle during his 2021 arrest. The drugs were said to have been sent to the FBI field office in Little Rock and then to a Miami lab and back again.
Judge Putman said, “There is just too big a hole in the chain of custody to allow the drugs to come in as evidence.”
He ruled, however, that the items of drug paraphernalia could be admitted. After his ruling, the revocations were allowed to stand, and Hobbs was sentenced.
The hearing into the suppression motion took up several hours last week and was wrapped up Monday.
Hobbs has made many appearances in circuit court recently. During one trip to the court complex, he passed out. Video from security cameras in the building show Hobbs and a female sitting on a bench in the main entry hallway.
As Hobbs talked with his public defender, his head could be seen tilting forward as the female pats him. Law officers responded and put Hobbs on the floor where chest compressions were applied and Narcan administered.
Narcan is primarily used to treat people suspected of experiencing an opioid overdose that can slow or stop a person’s breathing, leading to death. Narcan helps the user wake up and keep breathing.
BLIZZARD OF MOTIONS
Acting as his own attorney, Hobbs has filed more than 50 motions in his cases. They include motions to dismiss, motions to suppress evidence, motions to “quash sham complaint,” motions to find fraud in the prosecution of his case, motions to find violations of his right to a speedy trial, what he calls an “affidavit of truth” and a motion to have his cases heard by “arbitrators.”
Arbitrators are generally not used in criminal cases.
Hobbs filed one motion asking that his criminal cases be dismissed alleging that “the prosecution of the cases is being funded by the State of Arkansas which creates a conflict of interest for the prosecution’s team, as they are all paid by the same entity seeking to convict the defendant.”
The contention there is such a “conflict of interest” is nonsensical. Prosecutors represent the state, and the job of a prosecutor is to convict defendants accused of committing crimes.
In some documents he has filed with the courts, Hobbs identifies himself as “National(sic) of United States of America, non-subject, non-resident, non-citizen, native Arkansas (sic) and Natural Person.”
The wording in some of his motions is similar to that used in filings done by individuals who are members of a group known as Sovereign Citizens or who have access to the group’s material.
Hobb’s understanding of the legal system is, by his own admission, extremely limited. At the end of one document, he wrote an odd battle cry: “Let justice prevail, even if the heavens shall fall!”
Court records do not show that any action was taken on the motions he has filed during the period he represented himself. Generally, if a motion is not acted on within 30 days, it can be deemed denied.
Hobbs has written that he feels discriminated against by local police because, he alleges, they have pointed out that his uncle is the stepfather of one of the 8-year-old boys killed in West Memphis in a case widely known as the “West Memphis Three.”
The three young men charged in the 1993 murders spent 18 years behind bars before being released.
CIVIL SUIT FILED IN FEDERAL COURT
According to federal court records, Hobbs also filed a suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. Many individuals and entities were initially listed as defendants in the original suit.
The defendants/or entities included the Baxter County jail, Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge, Jailer Joe Willbanks, Deputy Public Defender James Wallace, jail employees Tabitha Maze and L. Powell, Mountain Home police officer Zachary Byrd and the City of Mountain Home.
The complaints in Hobbs’ federal lawsuit went nowhere and were eventually dismissed.
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