News

December 29, 2007

Many thefts get man big jail term

Melvin Stuart gets 3 to 6 years in state prison on his 27th, 28th, 29th convictions.

WILKES-BARRE – Twenty-six times.

That’s how many times 38-year-old Melvin Stuart had been convicted of committing crimes, mostly theft-related.

His past sentences in those cases, though, were apparently too lenient to make an impression on Stuart’s behavior, Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. said.

Olszewski wanted to make that impression Friday.

He sentenced Stuart to three to six years in state prison on his 27th, 28th and 29th convictions on charges that would normally call for probation.

And Olszewski wanted Stuart, the public and higher courts to know he leveled the stiff sentence because of Stuart’s past and the attitude Olszewski witnessed.

“You don’t care about anybody or anything and you’re going to commit as many crimes as your little heart desires,” Olszewski said.

Stuart, the judge said, had chances in the past to straighten out his life when judges gave him more lenient sentences. Two of Stuart’s past Luzerne County cases show he received probation and a few months in prison in theft-related cases.

“You said: ‘Judge, thanks, but no thanks. I’m still going to be a criminal,’” Olszewski said. “That’s your attitude, that’s how I’m going to treat you.”

Olszewski, a Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas judge, even suggested state parole officials make Stuart serve all six years of the sentence, not just the minimum of three.

Olszewski sentenced Stuart, of West Market Street in Kingston, on two felony counts of retail theft and one misdemeanor count of theft in three separate incidents.

In the first, Stuart stole three packs of Gillette Mach 3 razor blades worth $31.77 from the Rite Aid on East Northampton Street in Wilkes-Barre in May.

In the second, Stuart stole a donation can, valued at $8, for the SPCA from the Taco Bell restaurant on South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre in June.

And in the third, Stuart stole boxer shorts and T-shirts from the Family Dollar on West Main Street in Plymouth in June.

Because of Stuart’s lengthy past, the retail theft charges were felonies, rather than misdemeanors that would have called for a sentence of probation.

Stuart’s first conviction came in 1988 in New Jersey. And some court papers indicate he had additional arrests where charges were dropped.

State sentencing guidelines called for Olszewski to impose a standard minimum sentence between six and 16 months in prison on the retail theft charges; probation to six months in prison on the theft charges.

Assistant District Attorney Ed Olexa reminded Olszewski that Stuart had more than 20 theft-related convictions in the past and the sentences didn’t alter his behavior.

Stuart’s attorney, Mike Kostelaba, hoped Olszewski would give Stuart a sentence that allowed him to work to help get him on the right track.

And Stuart said he believed he might have a mental disorder, but was not properly medicated.

Olszewski said he’d get Stuart any treatment he needed. But he gave Stuart a speech, too.

It was evident Stuart had no regard for people’s property, the judge said. And he told Stuart that most people at 38 years old get a job to pay for things they need.

Now, Olszewski wants Stuart to spend the next six years thinking about what he’ll do when released. If Stuart does get parole, he has to get a full-time job, Olszewski said.

“You say, ‘I don’t want to do those things,’ Olszewski said. “You think you can just steal, steal, steal, steal and steal again. … I get the impression that you just like committing crimes.”

Stuart repeatedly tried interrupting Olszewski to ask a question.

But Olszewski wasn’t done.

When he was, he gave Stuart a chance to speak.

It was too late.

“Never mind, your honor,” a shackled Stuart said before being taken back to prison.

David Weiss, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7397.

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