Investigators examine the scene of a related to Whitsett in Martin County. (Bruce Bennett/Palm Beach Post)

STUART — A Broward County man who escaped from the Martin County Treatment Center in Indiantown by helicopter in 2000 faces up to 10 more years behind bars, thanks to a plea agreement reached Wednesday morning.

However, there’s a chance Steven R. Whitsett could walk out of the Martin County Courthouse a free man when he’s sentenced June 2 because he argued that prosecutors had improperly enhanced sentencing guidelines against him.

Whitsett escaped out of the center’s stockade in a rented helicopter piloted by his accomplice, Clifford Burkhart of Fort Lauderdale. The craft crashed 100 yards outside the enclosure, but the two men eluded lawmen for more than a day.

After his recapture, Whitsett pleaded guilty to armed escape and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2003.

In August 2007, Circuit Judge Larry Schack ruled Whitsett was entitled to a new trial because his attorney had not adequately explained his appeal rights.

Steven R. Whitsett

Wearing prison scrubs and with his ankles shackled, Whitsett represented himself at Wednesday’s hearing before Circuit Judge Sherwood Bauer and successfully argued, unless Assistant State Attorney Theodore Roodhof can come up with a good counter by the sentencing date, to have his minimum mandatory term reduced from slightly more than 15 years to slightly less than four years.

Whitsett faced up to 30 years in prison on the armed escape charge and up to 15 years for firearm possession. According to a plea agreement, Bauer can sentence Whitsett to no more than a total of 20 years on both charges.

Whitsett already has spent 3,628 days — almost 10 years — behind bars since his recapture.

Asked by Bauer whether he was accepting a plea deal because he was guilty, Whitsett replied, “Yes, I bear some guilt, but I don’t agree with the state on what exactly I’m guilty of. … My feeling is, if I go to trial, there’s a good chance I’ll be sent back to prison. I’ll appeal, and it will keep on going. Enough is enough.”

Whitsett originally was convicted on child molestation charges dating to 1999.

Jeffrey Anak Smith, a Stuart defense attorney assisting Whitsett, said Whitsett pleaded no contest to the molestation charge and served his sentence. He was in the Indiantown facility awaiting a hearing on whether he would be considered be a sexual predator and held beyond his prison sentence under the Jimmy Ryce Act.

After the escape attempt, Smith said, it was determined Whitsett was not a sexual predator.

“The irony,” Smith said, “is that if he had stayed at the treatment center, he would have been home 10 years ago.”

Tags: court, felony, Florida, Martin County

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