Kearney man jailed for theft

KEARNEY, Neb. (KSNB) – A Kearney man is heading to prison for his part in a May 2023 case involving a stolen pickup truck and shots fired at its owner.

Ronnie Swartz, 28, was convicted of complicity in robbery, drug possession and obstruction of police. On Friday he was sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison.

Swartz was subsequently arrested a wild incident on May 18, 2023, when police said a person reported being robbed and assaulted at gunpoint in his home by two men, Swartz and Jerome Quinn, 28, of Omaha.

Later that morning, police said Quinn and Swartz stole a pickup truck from the parking lot of an apartment complex in West Kearney.

Court records show the owner of the pickup followed the pair in another vehicle. Quinn later stopped driving the pickup on West 18th Street and allegedly began shooting at the owner. The owner was not injured and officers later found the pickup abandoned on a dirt road just west of Kearney.

Police arrested Quinn and Swartz later that evening at a home in east Kearney.

Quinn was convicted of theft, theft, possession of burglary tools, drug possession, obstructing an officer and resisting arrest. A judge sentenced him to 13 to 16 years in prison on these charges.

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