A 35 year-old Hopewell man will be going back to prison for a crime spree in Muskingum County committed while he was on judicial release in Franklin County.

Despite the Columbus probation department’s four attempts to have Dustin Osborne reincarcerated, the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas did not comply, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney John Litle said.

It was not going to be the same case in Judge Mark Fleegle’s court Wednesday afternoon.

“I suggest, if you don’t want to go to prison, you stay in Franklin County,” Fleegle told Osborne.

In 2014, Osborne was originally sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of the first-degree felony of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity for his involvement in a pill mill trafficking drugs from Florida to Ohio.

After serving one year in prison, Osborne was granted judicial release by Judge Michael Holbrook.

“He owes three years of a four year sentence and they’ve just left him out here to just commit crimes in our county, endlessly, without doing anything about it on their supposed supervision of him,” said Litle.

While in Muskingum County, Osborne picked up his first felony — a fifth-degree count of possession of drugs — and was sentenced to 11 months in prison.

After serving that sentence, and while still on judicial release from Franklin County, Osborne returned to Muskingum County to acquire four additional felony cases.

On Wednesday, Osborne pleaded guilty to those crimes in common pleas court and was sentenced to 40 months in prison — 10 months for each person he victimized while stealing credit cards and paychecks throughout Muskingum County.

“You should have been sent back to prison a long time ago by Franklin County,” Fleegle told Osborne. “It would have been better for you and a whole lot better for this county.”

From December 2018 to January 2019, Osborne was caught breaking into three separate vehicles to steal two credit cards and one paycheck, in addition to another credit card dropped in a gas station parking lot that he found.

Between the four cases, Osborne was convicted on the following charges:

• Receiving stolen property (check), a fifth-degree felony
• Forgery, a fifth-degree felony
• Theft, a fifth-degree felony
• Receiving stolen property (credit card), a fifth-degree felony
• Misuse of credit card, a first-degree misdemeanor
• Identity fraud, a fifth-degree felony
• Two counts of theft (credit card), fifth-degree felonies

“We expect the Franklin County courts to finally send him to prison on their case, as well,” said Litle.

In addition to prison time, Osborne was ordered to pay a total of $2,456.06 in restitution.