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Middletown resident John Redner, 52, was sentenced Monday, March 24, to 2.5 to 5 years in state prison after pleading guilty to third-degree burglary, Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced on Tuesday, March 25.
According to court documents and statements, the incident happened just after midnight on July 12, 2024, when a witness saw Redner breaking the window of a Dollar General store in Wallkill.
Redner climbed through the broken window, stole multiple items, and fled the scene on a bicycle, prosecutors said.
Responding officers from the Wallkill Police Department soon spotted Redner riding the bike with a cardboard box containing more than two dozen boxes of cigarettes stolen from the store.
At his plea hearing, Redner admitted to unlawfully entering the business with the intent to commit a crime.
"Repeat offenders, who continue to commit crimes despite escalating consequences, are the true drivers of crime,” Orange County DA Hoovler said in a statement on Tuesday.
One of Redner's prior arrests was an incident in February 2018 when he led police on a chase in Wallkill and Middletown while driving a 2017 Nissan Altima stolen from a Dunkin' in Allentown, Pennsylvania, as Daily Voice previously reported at the time.
"We will not tolerate such recidivism and we will seek incarceratory sentences, where appropriate, for those offenders who refuse to stop committing crimes," Hoovler added on Tuesday.
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