A Hillsboro man was sentenced to more than two years in prison from two separate cases for receiving stolen property and failure to appear recently in Highland County Common Pleas Court.

Dylan Harner, 25, was sentenced to nine months in prison for one count of receiving stolen property, a fourth-degree felony, which was ordered to be consecutive to nine months in prison for another count of identity fraud, a fourth-degree felony, both from the first case, which was also ordered to be consecutive to another nine months in prison from one count of failure to appear, a fourth-degree felony, from the second case.

Harner was also given 23 days of jail time credit.

According to court documents for the first count, on Oct. 21, 2022, somebody reported that their 2000 silver Audi TT had been stolen from their home on Golden Doubloon Lane. On Nov. 1, 2022, a sergeant arrived on Rock Road to try and serve a civil paper, but the property looked to be vacant. The sergeant knocked on the door of a mobile home and didn’t get a response.

While the sergeant was going back to his patrol vehicle, he noticed tracks in the tall grass going toward the back of the mobile home. He looked behind the mobile home and saw a silver Audi backed up against the mobile home. The sergeant ran the VIN on the Audi and confirmed that it was the 2000 Audi TT that had been reported as stolen.

A search warrant was obtained for both the property and the residence. After receiving the search warrant, deputies knocked on the mobile home’s front door and announced themselves. A female named Avalon Rich, sentenced last week, opened the door. Rich was placed in handcuffs and advised of her Miranda rights.

She was questioned by one of the detectives and said that her boyfriend, Harner, ran out the back door. Rich also said she knew Harner stole the vehicle from Golden Doubloon Lane. The keys to the Audi were found on a chair inside the residence.

Harner was interviewed by a detective at the Highland County Justice Center on Jan. 4, 2023. During the detective’s interview, Harner said that he was in possession of the stolen Audi.

According to court documents for the second count of the first case, on Jan. 4, 2023, a detective was monitoring Rich’s jail calls. During a review of them, the detective found out that she had been talking to Harner. During a call on the morning of Jan. 4, 2023, Harner told Rich that he had her bail money and would post her bond. During that call, Harner also told Rich that somebody went to Greene County looking for “cats to steal.” Harner said that they went to the YMCA, broke into a car, used the person’s credit card at a gas station and also put money on Visa cards for Rich’s bail.

A detective contacted the Xenia Police Department to see if a theft had been reported at their jurisdiction’s YMCA. The dispatcher there told them that an officer was working on a theft report at the YMCA at the moment. The detective told the officer why they were calling, with the officer saying that they were on call in reference to someone’s truck being broken into at the YMCA.

Over the next several hours the detective kept monitoring the jail calls between Rich and Horner. During a call that happened around 10 a.m., Harner told Rich that he was with someone in somebody else’s vehicle, had gone to the bank and “done something that he should have done a long time ago,” with him now in possession of $2,500.

The detective went to a bank in Hillsboro after learning that the person that owned the stolen truck banked there. The bank had a record of someone that said they were the owner going through the drive-through and withdrawing $1,500 from the account.

The Leesburg police chief then made contact with the detective and told him the vehicle in use by Harner was at a residence on Eastern Avenue in Leesburg. Officers responded to the residence and when they arrived saw two people standing outside.

A second vehicle believed to have been stolen was also in the driveway. One of the two people agreed to a search of the property, and a short time later Harner was found in a “makeshift shed” at the back of the residence. Harner was ordered to leave the shed and left behind a pair of Pit Viper sunglasses which also belonged to the person that had their truck stolen.

During a pat down of Harner, multiple cell phones and $1,500 were found. The second person’s stolen vehicle was inventoried before being towed. During that inventory a wallet belonging to the truck’s owner was found in the driver’s side door. A form of their ID was also found in the center console.

Harner admitted to stealing the truck owner’s wallet and sunglasses in Greene County but also claimed the items were on the ground next to the vehicle.

Harner said he was driving the vehicle when he and one of the people at the residence went through the bank and withdrew money from the truck owner’s account. Harner also claimed it was the passenger’s idea to withdraw the money and that the passenger also signed the withdrawal slip. Harner gave the bank teller the truck owner’s ID and kept the cash that was withdrawn.

According to court documents for the first count of the second case, on or around May 18, 2023, Harner recklessly failed to appear as requested in Highland County Common Pleas Court after having been released from jail.

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.