Matthew Scott Brooks, 48, McCordsville
GREENFIELD — The McCordsville man who failed to register as a sex offender, fled town and was found halfway across the country in Nevada, where officials say they believed he was trying to flee into Mexico, has been sentenced to a total of six and a half years in prison.
Matthew Scott Brooks, 48, 5900 block of North Attleburg Drive, was sentenced last week in Hancock County Superior Court by Judge D.J. Davis, who sentenced Brooks to a 3 year term at the Indiana Department of Corrections, per a plea agreement surrounding a Level 1 felony case of child molestation and three and a half years at the IDOC for failure to register as a sex offender associated with the child molestation conviction.
Davis ordered the sentences to run consecutive to each other, meaning Brooks will have to serve 6 and a half years in total at the IDOC minus credit time served.
Brooks was originally charged with two different Level 1 felony counts of molestation for crimes in 2017, but those charges were dismissed as Brooks ended up admitting guilt to a lesser Level 4 felony count of child molestation as part of a plea agreement signed in January 2019.
According to court records, Brooks was given a 10-year term in that case with eight years suspended to sex offender probation and two years to be served on home detention through the Hancock County Community Corrections program.
However, officials with the state found Brooks violated the terms of his deal in May 2019, but no sanctions were ordered. State officials then noted Brooks committed a second violation in September 2019. That’s when the court revoked four years of the suspended sentence and sent Brooks to serve the four years at the IDOC with four other years to be served on sex offender probation.
Brooks, officials said in a report, returned to probation status in August of 2022. However, in July of 2023 officials say he failed to register as a sex offender. The state then asked the court to revoke the remaining four years Brooks still had on probation and send Brooks back to the IDOC, but officials say that’s when he took off.
Brooks, officials noted, has a lifetime sex offender registration requirement which began back in January of 2019. Officials stated in their report that Brooks fled the state following his latest violation and was found in Reno, Nevada. Officials noted in their report that they thought he was trying to get to Mexico to evade police due to his probation violation.
Brooks, however, was eventually arrested in Nevada and brought back to Hancock County, where he remained in custody until he was sentenced.
