After pleading no contest, Barton was sentenced to three years in prison.
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OKEECHOBEE — Stephen Barton was sentenced to three years in state prison this week after pleading no contest to charges of grand theft auto and introducing contraband into a detention facility.
Barton, 33, was arrested in September of 2020 and has been in county jail since that day. The charges came about after an employee at Unlimited Turf reported her vehicle stolen. The woman said she was unloading supplies from her vehicle and taking them into the office. As she returned after one load, she was surprised to see her jeep driving away through the parking lot. Thinking her husband might have picked it up, she called him but was told he did not take it. She began running after the vehicle and slammed her hands on the driver’s side window. The driver, Barton, immediately got out of the jeep and began walking away, but the woman called her employer, who raced outside with some of the other employees. They stopped Barton and asked him to sit on the ground until law enforcement arrived.
Barton has a long history of grand theft charges beginning in 2006.