A Lower Burrell man who police pursued a woman and her three children in a high-speed car chase was ordered Monday to serve up to three years in prison.
Charles Stitt, 36, pleaded guilty in January to nine criminal counts including three felony charges of false imprisonment, reckless endangerment, and making terroristic threats in connection to an incident last June 14.
Police said Stitt initially attempted to block a woman from driving away from his home with the her three children then pursued her vehicle, weaved in and out of traffic before he pulled in front and stopped it in the middle of the road, threw himself on the his victim’s hood and later threatened to kill the occupants.
Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio sentenced Stitt to serve 1-to-3 years in prison and complete anger management classes. In a second case, Stitt pleaded guilty to fleeing from police and was sentenced to a concurrent 1-to-2 year prison sentence.
In that case, police said Stitt last Dec. 9 fled from authorities who sought to take him into custody on a warrant issued by a judge after prosecutors sought to revoke his $150,000 bail in prior case. Police said staked out Stitt’s home and when he spotted authorities he took off to evade capture.
Police said Stitt led authorities on a high-speed chase through several communities before the pursuit was terminated in Oakmont. Stitt was later identified and taken in to custody in January.
According to court records, Stitt in 2016 was ordered to serve 3-to-10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder, robbery and aggravated assault for the shooting of a man two years earlier in the parking lot of the Clarion Hotel in New Kensington.