Stephen Tyler Hobbs, 17, of 465 Jim Best Road, Mount Olive, pleaded guilty in Sampson County Superior Court Monday to three counts of breaking and entering, four counts of animal cruelty and one count each of larceny, injury to real property and injury to personal property.
Presiding Senior Resident Superior Court Judge W. Allen Cobb Jr. gave the teen a suspended prison sentence of six to eight months. Judge Cobb sentenced the 17-year-old to supervised probation, ordered him to complete 100 hours of community service and submit to the mental evaluation.
Lawyers for Hobbs stated that the defendant has already taken counseling classes. He was abusing drugs and alcohol at the time, and has since stopped, an attorney for Hobbs said in court.
“I think this has been a wakeup call for him to get his life on track,” she said.
According to evidence relayed by the state, Hobbs and another teen broke into a storage building owned by Tim Hobbs on Calvin Hobbs Road, Faison. Items stolen in the incident included a 27-inch television and assorted tools, including a wrench kit, drill bits, a jigsaw and other tools.
That break-in was reported Oct. 11, the same day Allan Thornton would report break-ins to four of his chicken houses off Eldon Thornton Road.
Thornton reported that 482 chickens being kept in his houses had been killed. State prosecutors, on Monday, said large wrenches and baseball bats were used to murder the fowl. During the incident, a water line was also struck, causing extensive damage in addition to the loss of the chickens, prosecutors said.
Judge Cobb ordered the defendant pay $7,209 in restitution for costs incurred as a result of the crimes.
Charges against the other teenager accused in the incidents, Jonathan Michael Puckett, 17, of Calypso, were still pending Tuesday.
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