A Jones County defendant entered guilty pleas in four cases involving aggravated assault and obstruction of an officer in Superior Court and will spend the next few years in confinement.
Dontrell Darnell Pitts entered his pleas May 23 represented by public defender Tom O’Donnell. Assistant District Attorney Cara Fiore was the prosecutor in the cases, and Superior Court Judge Terry Massey accepted the pleas.
Pitts was sentenced to a total of 20 years with the first six years to serve. All the sentences will run concurrently, which means at the same time. The remainder of his sentence is to be served on probation, and he is to receive credit for time served from Jan. 7, 2021. Fiore told the court that Pitts was arrested in October 2020 for an incident at Gray Gardens involving a knife. He was charged with two counts of aggravated assault as a result. Another arrest took place in January of 2021 following an altercation with family members. The two other cases were from incidents that took place while he was in jail, involving other inmates and correction officers.
O’Donnell said he had represented Pitts since 2021, and with the agreement of the state, the defendant was sent for a mental competency evaluation. The attorney said Pitts was found to be competent.
O’Donnell said Pitts is 21, and another evaluation was done May 13. He said the report from the evaluations each time stated Pitts had anger issues but concluded he was competent.
