Aug 19, 2020 3 min read

Three years ago, Todd Krut of Claysville stopped on Interstate 79 near Carnegie to aid a man who crashed a Kia Sportage into a guardrail.

But this Good Samaritan became a victim when the driver who had wrecked the Kia not only stole Krut’s pickup truck, but dragged Krut about 100 feet along the highway.

In Washington County Court on Tuesday morning, Krut described suffering two broken feet, a concussion, hearing loss and back and shoulder pain on July 9, 2017.

To add insult to injury, police who arrived on the dark stretch of highway thought Krut was a car thief, because the disabled, wrecked Kia turned out to have been reported stolen the day before by Jeri Williams of Washington. Her home was also broken into.

The injured Krut also feared for the lives of his family members for the 10 days he was hospitalized because his house key was inside the glove box of his stolen truck.

“I couldn’t even go home and change my door locks,” he told Judge Valarie Costanzo, adding that, for 13 years, he had never called in sick from his job repairing forklifts but that his injuries caused him to miss six months’ work.

“I’m still trying to recover,” he said. “I was the guy who always helped everybody out. I can’t do that anymore.”

Krut’s agony was part of a guilty plea and sentencing hearing for Ivan Sadler, 57, of Washington, who appeared via video from the Washington County jail.

When the judge asked Sadler if he accepted responsibility for these crimes, plus other burglaries and thefts, Sadler replied, “Fully.”

Costanzo also asked Krut if he had any objection to the plea agreement presented in court by Assistant District Attorney Kevin Scheibel.

Krut assented, and added, “I’m just trying to get some some closure.”

Sadler’s attorney, Kimberly Furmanek, asked if her client’s move to a state prison could take place after Sept. 12 to take care of family matters, to which Scheibel had no objection.

The defendant’s 7- to- 14-year sentence for robbing Krut of his motor vehicle, but for additional counts of burglary, theft and unauthorized credit card use, some of which involved other victims, Sadler either received probationary or concurrent sentences, with credit for time served to be computed by the state Department of Corrections.

State police took Sadler into custody July 12, 2017, after finding him in possession of a stolen vehicle in West Finley Township.

Sadler’s incarceration is to be followed by six years of state probation. He is to have evaluations for drug and alcohol use and mental health, follow any prescribed treatment, have no contact with the victims, and pay restitution.