GREENFIELD — The Greenfield man arrested for trespassing at an elementary school earlier this year — who told police he was performing “security checks” and bringing the children “sunshine” — pleaded guilty recently to the charges he faced.
But 48-year-old Larry Shrout has now been released from jail. He’s served the entirety of his sentence, records show.
Shrout pleaded guilty to criminal trespassing as a Class A misdemeanor, and was ordered to serve a year in jail. Because Shrout was arrested in February and has been locked in the Hancock County Jail since then, he’s completed that obligation, records show.
Indiana law gives offenders one day of credit time for every day they physically spend behind bars. Shrout served more than 220 days in jail following his arrest. That and the credit time he’d earned was applied to his one-year sentence, and he was officially released from the facility Friday.
Shrout was on the grounds of Brandywine Elementary School, 413 E. County Road 400S, without permission twice on Feb. 27, investigators said. His presence there put staff members on edge, and the school was put on a brief lockdown as a precaution, according to police reports.
Teachers first spotted Shrout around 11 a.m. calling to kindergartners who were on the playground at recess, beckoning them over to where he stood along fence, court documents state.
When they confronted Shrout about why he was on school property, he told them “that he had brought the sunshine for the children,” court documents state.
Shrout drove away from the school as teachers called police; but sheriff’s deputies caught up with him a short while later. During his conversation with the officers, Shrout said he had visited the school several times “doing what he described as security checks,” court documents state.
Deputies told Shrout he wasn’t to go onto any Southern Hancock Schools properties again. But about 30 minutes later, teachers at Brandywine called 911 again to report Shrout had returned to the school despite the order from police, court documents state.
Shrout was then arrested; and prosecutors formally charged him with one Level 6 felony count of criminal trespass.
Shrout accepted a plea agreement last week that reduced the count to a Class A misdemeanor.
Criminal trespass is typically charged as Class A misdemeanor; but if the offense is committed on school property, a scientific research facility or a facility belonging to a public utility, prosecutors can increase the charge to a felony, officials told the Daily Reporter.
A Level 6 felony count carries a sentence of six months to two and a half years; but Class A misdemeanors are punishable by up to one year in jail.