photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Joshua Scott Carpenter

A Topeka man was sentenced Thursday in Douglas County District Court to 12 months in prison for theft and other crimes.

The man, Joshua Scott Carpenter, 34, pleaded guilty on June 12 to one felony count of burglary of a motor vehicle, one felony count of theft of a motor vehicle and one felony count of fleeing from an officer. Judge Amy Hanley sentenced him to 12 months for the theft charge, six months on the burglary charge and six months on the flee and elude charge, all to run concurrently.

While Carpenter’s latest charges will run concurrently with one another for a combined total of one year, the overall sentence will run consecutively with his prior convictions since he was on felony parole when he committed the Douglas County crimes, Hanley said.

Carpenter was serving a prison sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm and for being in possession of stolen mail and was transferred to Douglas County from a federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He was sentenced by the U.S. District Court of Kansas to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $8,722 in restitution. Carpenter’s defense attorney in Lawrence, Dakota Loomis, said that Carpenter would be returned to federal custody now that he has been sentenced locally.

As previously reported by the Journal-World, the local charges stem from a string of incidents in July of 2021 where Carpenter was alleged to have taken items including a rug, a stethoscope and “metabolic meals.” He originally faced nine counts of theft, four counts of burglary and one count of fleeing from an officer. Seven of the charges were felonies.

Carpenter has multiple felony convictions in Jackson County, Kansas, and Shawnee County for theft, forgery and illegal possession of a firearm.