Guilty on all counts: jury convicts in theft case

PALMER — A jury convicted a Houston man of burglary, theft and other charges Wednesday, attorneys in the case said.

Dawson Sult, 29, of Houston, had faced 10 charges overall – six felonies and four misdemeanor counts – in connection with a series of cabin break-ins in the Burnt Point and Flat Lake areas, according to court documents and trial testimony.

Attorneys delivered closing arguments in the weeklong trial Sept. 19. The prosecution’s case had turned on tire track evidence photographed at some scenes and at a Point MacKenzie Road cabin containing stolen property from multiple thefts.

The defense’s case had focused on the absence of DNA and plaster-cast elements from the scene. Authorities told the jury DNA sentencing would take too long to process.

Jury instructions had included several paragraphs about accomplice law, wherein Sults could be convicted based on the absence of a reasonable doubt that he had served as an accomplice, though prosecutors had said during trial he was the primary burglar and thief.

Sult faces sentencing Dec. 29. He faces a presumptive sentencing range of between four and seven years imprisonment for a Class B felony first-degree burglary charge, and between two and four years for each of the other felony charges, according to assistant district attorney Brittany Dunlop, who prosecuted the case.

His total presumptive sentencing time thus ranges between 27 and 14 years for the felony charges alone.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.