A Parsons woman received a controlling 35 months in prison for theft and from past crimes for which her probation was revoked.
Chelsea L. Shultz, 34, pleaded no contest in November 2024 in Labette County District Court for felony theft. Another charge of residential burglary was dismissed as part of the plea.
She was sentenced Friday in District Court Judge Steven A. Stockard’s courtroom. Labette County Attorney Mandy Johnson prosecuted Shultz and Christy Caddell was her defense counsel.
Shultz had two cases filed in 2019, which resulted in convictions for criminal threat, theft and possession of alprazolam (Xanax). Her probation had been revoked and reinstated in 2022 in these cases.
On Friday, Judge Stockard revoked her probation on those convictions, based not the theft conviction and other factors, and ordered her to serve the prison term. She was asked to leave a treatment program because of marijuana use. Shultz could have received 38 months in prison for those convictions but Stockard reduced that to 23 months. Her prison terms were 23 months in one case and 15 in the other, with the terms to be served back to back. Stockard ordered them served at the same time, making the 23-month term controlling.
Shultz has received enough jail credit because of delays in her cases to get credit for at least that entire term, her attorney said.
On the most recent theft case, Shultz pleaded no contest to stealing $30,000 from Doug Smethwick in 2022. She was wearing an ankle bracelet at the time of the crime for her probation and the GPS showed her in the area of Smethwick’s house at the time of the theft and at about the time that Smethwick’s nephew saw her leaving the house in another woman’s car.
Smethwick had collected that money, based on receipts he shared in court, from scrapping cars received from his towing business.
Stockard ordered Shultz to serve 12 months in prison for the theft. This sentence will be served consecutively to the 23 months in the revocation cases.
He granted her credit for around 600 days she’s been in custody during the history of the cases. He also ordered her to pay $30,000 in restitution to Smethwick. However, since she is going to prison he determined that a workable repayment plan was available so he ordered the amount due immediately, which means the restitution likely would be sent to a collections agency.
Once released from prison, Shultz will be on parole supervision for a year.
