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Felon returned from prison enters plea deal for 22-years worth of concurrent sentences

Writer's picture: Dennis McCaslinDennis McCaslin


A 44-year-old Johnson County man was sentenced to a total of 23 years on Friday in Sebastian County Circuit Court on drug and theft related charges stemming from separate arrests in late 2020 and early 2021.


Court records show Chad Dean Chrisman of Hartman was arrested on December 30, 2020 and charged with Theft of Property, Possession of Controlled Substance - Schedule I/II, Absconding and a Parole Violation. He was release less than 24 hours later, and nineteen days later he was arrested and charged with three counts of Breaking and Entering and a misdemeanor charge of failure to appear.


Those arrest are consistent with Chrisman's cri9minal past. He has been been arrested, charged and convicted for numerous drug-related and stolen property charges since an arrest in 2003, resulting in a cycle of catches, incarceration and releases.


The first three felony c0onvi9ctions resulted in either suspended imposition of sentence or probation, but in May of this year a 2019 Johnson County drug arrest for Delivery of Meth or Cocaine bought Chrisman a 240 month sentence. From that arrest until his sentencing on Friday, Chrisman five different felony arrests in either Johnson or Sebastian County.


On Friday, Chrisman, who was returned to the SCADC from the Varner Unit of the Arkansas Deportment of Corrections for the plea deal, was sentenced to ten years on Breaking and Entering and six years each on Drug Possession and Paraphernalia charges. Because he was already serving a ten year sentence and all sentences were bundled concurrently, Chrisman will actually serve no additional time for Friday's court ruling.


He also received one year in the SCADC on the failure to appear charge, a six year suspended sentence on another theft charge and will have to pay $50 a month restitution starting 60 days after his eventual release.











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