April Lynn Kuchta’s time on the streets came to an end early this morning,
when she was apprehended in an apartment on Hickory Street, the U.S.
Marshal’s Great Lake Fugitives Task Force reported just before deadline
today.
Kuchta—who was nearing the end of a four-year prison term after pleading
guilty to criminal confinement and intimidation—absconded in Downtown
Valparaiso on Feb. 6, before she was due to complete a drug test at the
Porter County PACT offices, according to the Porter County Adult Probation
Department.
At approximately 6 a.m. Kuchta was taken into custody “without incident” at
an acquaintance’s apartment in the 100 block of Hickory Street, located less
than a mile from the garbage can at Monroe and Valparaiso streets into which
she had dumped a GPS monitoring device after cutting it off, USMS
Supervisory Inspector Shannon Robinson told the Chesterton Tribune.
“We’ve just been beating the streets really hard and interviewing a lot of
people,” Robinson said. “This acquaintance’s name came up. We did a
surveillance of the apartment and determined Kuchta was there, and we hit
it.”
Kuchta was transported to Porter County Jail.
Kuchta has been formally charged with two counts of escape: a Class C felony
count, punishable by a term of two to eight years; and a Class D count,
punishable by six months to three years. She has also been charged with
failure to comply.
In April 2011, Kuchta and a 15-year-old accomplice lured a 17-year-old
special needs boy to a residence on Roseland Terrace in Valparaiso, where
they threatened him with a knife, handcuffed him, and sexually battered him,
the Valparaiso Police Department said at the time.
Although Kuchta was originally charged with criminal deviate conduct—a Class
A felony punishable by a term of 20 to 50 years—she subsequently pleaded
guilty to criminal confinement, a Class C felony, and intimidation, a Class
D felony. In October 2011, Porter Superior Court Judge Bill Alexa sentenced
Kuchta to eight years on the Class C felony, four of those years suspended;
and to three years on the Class D felony, none suspended.
But Alexa ordered Kuchta to serve those terms concurrently, for an effective
term of four years in the Indiana Department of Correction. And Kuchta was
eligible for release after serving half of that time.
Kuchta formally began her Community Transition Period on Feb. 1.
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