Former MTU student gets four months for larceny

By GARRETT NEESE, DMG Writer
HOUGHTON — A former Michigan Technological University student was sentenced to four months in jail for his part in stealing electronic equipment from several cars in a university parking lot in March.

Dustin Trobaugh, 18, committed the break-ins near Wadsworth Hall at Michigan Tech, where he resided. Fellow student and co-conspirator Christopher Lindeman, 18, pleaded guilty in Houghton County Circuit Court last week and will be sentenced next Monday.

Trobaugh was charged with two counts of larceny, a five-year felony, and four counts of malicious destruction of property, a five-year misdemeanor.

This isn’t Trobaugh’s first brush with the law, said Prosecutor Douglas Edwards; last year, Trobaugh led a group of friends in a prank in which a man’s handcrafted model lighthouse was burnt to the ground.

In both cases, Edwards said, the other people involved pointed to him as a ringleader.

Trobaugh said he had been stressed out by family troubles. And in Houghton, he said, he was communicating with his family less.

“My family pushed me so hard to come up here for college I guess you could almost say I did this to get out of here,” he said.

Edwards said he was troubled by Trobaugh’s explanation of his motives.

“If he didn’t like college, and it caused him stress, why is he taking it out on others?” he said. “I think he has a deeper psychological problem somewhere.”

Trobaugh’s attorney, David Gemignani, agreed Trobaugh should seek help.

“If Mr. Trobaugh is troubled, there are better ways to take out that stress,” he said. “And at some point in life, you’ve got to realize — realize — you are responsible for your acts. And it’s got to be now.”

Trobaugh said his 48 days in jail have been a wake-up call for him. He said he will be working to overcome his issues, saying that his girlfriend is expecting their first child.

He said he plans to get a business degree from a community college closer to home.

Hood said he could see last year’s prank making sense to a teen “in a misguided, stupid kind of way.” But the thefts from cars, he said, are “just malicious.”

Hood sentenced Trobaugh under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act. If he completes it successfully, his record will be wiped clean after two years.

“You’d better mature really quickly, or you’ll be in deep trouble,” Hood said. “Your kid’s going to be visiting you in prison.”



Garrett Neese can be reached at gneese@mininggazette.com