Multiple car thefts finally caught up with 20-year-old man

A judge sentenced a 20-year-old Cedar Rapids man to seven years for eight offenses committed over a two year span, mostly involving stealing cars on Wednesday in Linn County District Court. Wyatt Hunt faced up to 11 years in prison, the prosecutor's recommendation, but 6th Judicial District Judge Lars Anderson revoked his previous probation on a six years suspended sentence from 2015 and ran it concurrently to seven years for his convictions on Wednesday of third-degree burglary and operating a motor vehicle without consent.

Hunt received probation for convictions of three charges of operating a motor vehicle without consent, two charges of fraudulent use of a credit card and one charge of leaving the scene of personal accident, court records show.

Brian Johnson, Hunt's lawyer, made the recommendation of probation for the 2015 six year sentence to be ran concurrently with current charges. He asked the court to give Hunt another chance on probation because his behavior stemmed from mental health and substance abuse issues and that would give him the chance to receive treatment in the community.

First Assistant Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said Hunt had been given 'multiple opportunities for rehabilitation,” including being placed in a half-way house and also receiving mental health and substance abuse services, but he continued to re-offend.

He has previous convictions in 2015 of eluding, unauthorized use of a credit card, driving while barred and possession of marijuana. He also has a pending revocation of probation for conviction in Jones County for vehicle burglary and pending charges in Johnson County of operating a motor vehicle without owner's consent and driving while barred.

Maybanks noted after the hearing that in one incident where the victim put out information about her car being taken and photos of it on Facebook and the victim's cousin saw it and later saw Hunt driving the stolen car. The cousin pulled Hunt out of the car and punched him when he tried to escape. Police arrived and Hunt denied being in the car.

'The investigations into these incidents showed that Mr. Hunt would basically take these cars and drive them around until he was caught,” Maybanks said.