Lang/Hunter
8/30/21
A man who was arrested Saturday for breaking a window at a county building was taken into custody again Sunday for shattering the rear window out of a county vehicle.
Iowa City Police and Johnson County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the Johnson County Health and Human Services Building on South Dubuque Street just before 2:30 Saturday afternoon for a report of a man who had broken a window. The reporting party was the clerk at the nearby Delimart, who told investigators that 30-year-old Bryant Smith of Ainsworth had come into the store and told them to call the police. Smith then allegedly showed officers where he had broken the window, valued at $500.
Smith was charged with 4th Degree Criminal Mischief, a Serious Misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in jail.
Then on Sunday, Smith was allegedly in the county parking ramp and broke the window out of a Johnson County SUV. He then again went to the Delimart across the street to have them call authorities. When questioned, Smith said he damaged the vehicle because he wanted a place to sleep and eat and had no other options.
Smith faces another 4th degree Criminal Mischief charge punishable by up to a year in jail.
Smith had been given a criminal trespass warning for the same parking ramp in 2020 after he used a 2×4 to smash two rear windows and a windshield on two county-owned vehicles. Smith pleaded guilty to a Trespassing Causing Damage Greater Than $300 charge, with a more serious 2nd Degree Criminal Mischief charge having been dropped in a deal with prosecutors. He was given a one-year suspended sentence and one year of probation.
