A man is facing more than 100 years in prison after being convicted of breaking into a Franklin couple’s home, holding them at gunpoint and robbing them.
Reese Keith, 28, of Indianapolis, was found guilty of burglary, auto theft and two counts each of criminal confinement and armed robbery — all felonies.
After reviewing Keith’s criminal history that dates back to at least 2010, Johnson County Superior Court 2 Judge Peter Nugent also found Keith guilty of being a habitual offender, which increases the amount of time he faces in prison by up to 60 years.
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In total, Keith faces up to 126 years in prison when he is sentenced next month, Johnson County Prosecutor Brad Cooper said.
Cooper plans to ask for the maximum sentence considering Keith’s long criminal history, he said.
Keith was charged with multiple felonies last year after police said he broke into a Franklin home after leaving Johnson Memorial Hospital, where he had been taken after a crash in Greenwood.
The case went to a bench trial, where a judge considers the charges and decides if the defendant is guilty. This week, Nugent gave his verdict, finding Keith guilty of all counts.
In addition to the charges from the day of the robbery, Keith was also charged with being a habitual offender, which can be used when a person has been convicted of at least two previous felonies, with at least one being higher than the lowest level felony allowed under the law.
In court this week, prosecutors detailed five previous felony convictions between 2010 and 2016, including auto theft, battery, possession of a narcotic drug and possession of paraphernalia. With a conviction of that habitual offender charge, a person’s sentence can be extended by another 20 to 60 years, Cooper said.
Keith is set to be sentenced on July 11.
In the bench trial that concluded last week, prosecutors argued that Keith’s crimes greatly accelerated the dementia that Clayton Dixon, one of the residents of the home Keith robbed, was being treated for. He’s unable to care for himself, and will likely never be able to live in his home again.
Keith’s attorney, Andrew Borland, had argued that no tests could show that Dixon’s condition had declined because of the robbery. He had also argued that Keith’s statements to police after he was arrested should not be used as evidence against him because Keith had been in a car accident, had admitted using methamphetamine and had a seizure in the hospital less than a week prior to his arrest.
On May 15, 2017, Keith was accused of breaking into the Dixons’ Franklin home, using duct tape to bind the couple to chairs and taking money, guns and their car.
According to police, Keith was arrested the day before the break-in after running from a crash on State Road 135 in Greenwood. He had needles in his pockets and drug paraphernalia in the stolen vehicle he was driving, possibly overdosed and had a seizure. Greenwood police took him to the hospital twice, and on the third trip, a doctor at Johnson Memorial Hospital decided to admit him.
Ten hours after the incident began, a Greenwood police supervisor decided officers should leave Keith at the hospital in Franklin and ask for a warrant for his arrest, rather than wait for him to be discharged and take him to jail, because he had not been accused of a violent crime. Keith was last seen at the hospital at 4:25 a.m. May 15, and was wearing a hospital gown and his IV was still attached when he left.
Police said Keith got into the Dixon’s home, which is about a block away from the hospital, by breaking a window. Detectives searching the home found a hospital gown and a hospital identification bracelet with the name of Keith Reese, which Keith used as an alias, in the garage, according to court records.
He was arrested in Richmond on May 20.
