Kansas Man Pleads Guilty to Farm Equipment Thefts
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 06, 2010 |
WICHITA, KS—Ryan Hanzlik, 32, Gem, Kansas, has pleaded guilty to three counts of interstate transportation of stolen farm equipment, U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch said today.
In his plea, Hanzlick admitted that on June 1, 2006, he and co-defendant Matthew T. Jones traveled from Kansas to Oklahoma to look for a combine to steal. In Oklahoma, they found a Gleanor combine which they loaded onto a trailer attached to a truck they were driving and transported the combine to Jones’ farm in Kansas.
On April 26, 2008, Hanzlick called Jones and told him about a John Deere tractor and planter located near Elsie, Neb. They traveled to Elsie, Neb, and stole the tractor and planter, which they transported to Jones’ farm in Kansas.
Co-defendant Matthew T. Jones is set for sentencing July 22, 2010.
Hanzlick is set for sentencing Sept. 17, 2010. Prosecutors will recommend a sentence of 36 months in federal prison. Welch commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Attorney General’s office, law enforcement agencies in Thomas, Wichita, Sherman, Wallace, Greeley, Rawlins, and Cheyenne Counties, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Metzger for their work on the case.