MICHAEL R. HILTBRAND
WESTFIELD – A Green Avenue resident with a history with city police has been sent to jail for a year after pleading guilty to his most recent infraction, a nighttime burglary of a neighbor’s home while the residents were sleeping.
Michael R. Hiltbrand, 47, of 5 Green Ave., Westfield, pleaded guilty in Westfield District Court Wednesday to charges of larceny from a building and breaking and entering a building in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony. Judge William O’Grady sentenced Hiltbrand to a year in the house of correction for the larceny charge and placed him on probation for two years for the breaking and entering charge.
The charges stemmed from an July 17 incident when city police responded to a Green Avenue address because a resident reported that two windows of his home had been broken overnight and a television and crockpot had been stolen.
Westfield police detective Jason Williams reports police investigated and found that a trail of blood led from one of the windows’ broken glass to the back door of 5 Green Ave. and the stolen crockpot was found under a wooden deck next door. Green Avenue, which begins almost directly across the street from the police station, is lined with connected residences which include the burgled home, the address where the crockpot was discovered and Hiltbrand’s house. Hiltbrand, Williams reports, “became the main suspect.”
Two days later,Williams reports, Hiltbrand confessed to the crime and said that he had sold the television for $50 which he had used to buy crack cocaine.
When Hiltbrand was arraigned later that day, he was held without right to bail pending a violation of probation hearing Aug. 7. The charges appeared to violate the terms of probation which had been imposed in February, 2019, when Hiltbrand had pleaded guilty to a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon.
Hiltbrand had previously been brought to court following a July, 2017, incident which resulted in a charge of assault and battery on a disabled person older than 60 years-of-age. In March, 2018, he was allowed to pleaded guilty to a charge of simple assault and battery in that case and he was placed on probation for six months.
At his violation of probation hearing Wednesday, he was found to have violated his probation and was sentenced to a nine month term in the house of correction to be served concurrently with the one year term imposed for the larceny charge.
In imposing the jail term, O’Grady recommended that his sentence be served at the Mill Street correctional facility which houses the sheriff department’s Western Massachusetts Wellness and Recovery Center. The sheriff’s website describes the facility as “a minimum security, community-based, residential treatment facility… designed to provide for the custody, care and treatment of substance users from Hampden, Franklin, Berkshire, Hampshire and Worcester counties.
