Golf course thief to serve jail time

Nathan Pohl will be spending more than one year imprisoned for an attempted burglary followed by an escape from the Sidney police station earlier this year.

The Sidney man was initially arrested in February when law enforcement found him trespassing at the golf course mower shed. Upon his arrest, police found several items inside his vehicle that were taken from the mower shed. Later on that very frigid day, Pohl escaped the police department through a side door. He was not wearing a coat or shoes.

He was located when an employee at Points West Bank on Glover Rd. reported that there was an unidentified man in the backseat of her car. Pohl had climbed into the trunk of the bank worker’s car and fell asleep. When he woke up, he climbed into the back seat, where he was spotted.

On April 2, Pohl pled no contest to one count of attempted burglary and one count of escape, both class four felonies.

On Tuesday Cheyenne County attorney Paul Schaub asked the court to sentence Pohl to prison time due to his lengthy criminal history. Pohl had been placed on probation as well as incarcerated multiple times in the past for various offenses.

“Probation was obviously not working for him,” Schaub said.

The pre-sentencing investigation found that Pohl was at high risk of re-offending.

Pohl’s lawyer, Steve Elmshaeuser argued that his client’s criminal history was not that lengthy, excluding traffic offenses and transgressions that resulted in minor fines. Pohl was honest with the probation officers about his substance abuse problems Elmshaeuser pointed out. Pohl could hold down a job, if given the chance, he argued.

“Mr. Pohl can be employed, he has the skills,” Elmshaeuser said.

In the past Pohl lost jobs due to his problems with alcohol and drug abuse. Pohl was not the same person on the day of the sentencing that he was when he was arrested, his lawyer said. Pohl has been in jail since February and is now sober.

“He’s sincere in his desire to get treatment, to make sure this type of behavior doesn’t happen again,” Elmshaeuser said.

The attorney was adamant that his client wanted to change and that Pohl was through with methamphetamine. The defense asked for six years of probation so Pohl could prove to the court his ability to be a law abiding citizen.

If given a chance on probation, Pohl might qualify for fast tracked treatment for his drug problem. Pohl admitted to using two or more grams of methamphetamine per day.

District court judge Derek Weimer commented that he’d sentenced the defendant to a prison term in the past. Weimer acknowledged that the defendant seemed to have a different perspective on his actions this time in court than Pohl did after previous crimes.

“Whether this is the moment where you fully come to appreciate what your addictions have cost you in this lifetime, I don’t know,” Weimer said.

Pohl had many chances at probation in the past. Some of his experiences with probation were positive and some were not, Weimer added. The escape charge in this case was an example that at the time Pohl was arrested, he was not willing to face up to what he’d done.

“You were in custody,” Weimer said. “You were clearly in custody.”

Pohl was sentenced to 20 to 60 months imprisonment for the burglary charge and 12 to 36 months on the escape charge. He was ordered to serve these terms consecutively.

Pohl could be eligible for parole in 16 months and will be set for mandatory release in 48 months.

Pohl had already been in custody for 92 days for these offenses as of Tuesday.