From the courts: District Court

A local man received six months in the county jail for stealing several items from a local ranch.

Brett Matkovich, born in 1982, was sentenced last week in state District Court in Havre to six months in the county jail for the misdemeanor offense of criminal mischief, and five years, all suspended, to the Department of Corrections, for felony theft. Matkovich’s sentence is part of a plea agreement.

Matkovich also has a 2014 conviction in Cascade County for criminal endangerment.

Hill County Sheriff’s deputies responded July 12, 2017, after a Box Elder rancher reported a burglary.

The rancher told deputies that someone had taken two batteries from grain trucks, one filter assembly from a grain truck, two electric fence chargers, a two-way radio, cementing tools, two curbing machines with Honda motors, and siphoned 20 gallons from a grain truck. His fence had been cut in several places and two electric solar charging stations had been stolen.

The investigating deputy visited a local pawn shop, where the worker told him someone showed up with the described items and was unloading them in the parking lot. The deputy went outside but Matkovich had left by that point in a gray pickup, leaving behind two curbing engines with Honda motors and one electric fence charging station.

Two days later, another rancher reported to deputies that he saw a suspicious gray pickup truck on the ranch.

The ranchers chased the pickup and then called police, who pursued and eventually arrested Matkovich.