PORTAGE — A 31-year-old Hobart man was to leave jail Friday and report directly to a halfway house after pleading guilty to robbing a Portage bank last summer, which he said was the result of a cycle of addiction in which he is seeking help.
Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer accepted David Gant's plea to a felony count of robbery and the terms of the plea agreement, which call for a four-year sentence with three years suspended and to be served on formal probation.
David Gant
Gant has enough credit time behind bars to be released Friday and move himself over to a local halfway house.
Porter County Deputy Prosecutor Harry Peterson said the deal is fair in that if Gant does not comply with the terms of probation, he faces going to prison for three years.
Defense attorney Mark Chargualaf said Gant has taken it upon himself to complete addiction treatment programs and to go to the halfway house.
People are also reading…
"The proof is in his actions," Chargualaf said.
Gant, who was ordered to pay $2,044 in restitution, pleaded guilty to robbing the Horizon Bank in Portage July 24, records show.
Identification of the officers involved in this incident will be made at a later date.
Portage police said they had been called out around 2:25 p.m. in response to a panic alarm. They discovered the bank had been robbed by a man who presented the teller with a note demanding money.
"No direct threats were made, and no weapons were displayed or implied during this incident," police said.
The suspect, later identified as Gant, fled the bank with money and was not immediately apprehended.
The driver faces a felony count of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.
Gant had quickly been identified as a suspect in the robbery after Portage officers reviewed surveillance video footage and recognized him from a previous incident, Portage police Lt. Rob Maynard said.
His vehicle had been picked up by a license plate recognition system in Portage shortly after the robbery and later by a similar system in Hammond.
Portage police shared what they knew about the robbery with surrounding departments and Hammond officers located Gant's vehicle outside a hotel in their jurisdiction, Maynard said.