Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
According to prosecutors, the Falls Township man who led police on an hours long manhunt last month will likely enter into an open guilty plea.
In district court on Tuesday, the preliminary hearing for Phillip Culley, 30, of Levittown, was continued and combined with a case that Culley was charged for back in late April. The case, according to the district attorney’s office, will likely result in an open guilty plea on behalf of Culley and his attorney.
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Police say Culley broke into a friend’s home on Tanglewood Lane in the Thornridge section of the township in early May. He allegedly stole two shotguns and ammunition before driving off in his friend’s 2005 Ford F-350 truck.
“The defendant left a note written on a piece of plywood in black magic marker admitting to being the one who broke in and stole the items,” Officer Nicholas Pinto wrote in an criminal complaint.
After abandoning the truck in the Vermillion Hills section and allegedly engaging in an hours-long manhunt that left residents “in fear” and brought as many as five heavily-armored officers to a home on Buttonwood Lane, police notified residents that Culley was indeed in custody. His girlfriend, who had not been heard from previously, was discovered fine when she engaged in conversation with a LevittownNow.com reporter and police.
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According to officers, Culley had made terroristic threats during a domestic dispute with his girlfriend the month prior. He was found armed on Buttonwood Lane in the incident and three of his legally-owned firearms were confiscated. Culley’s mother had recently posted his bail when he engaged in the theft and manhunt with police, according to court documents.
Culley remains in Bucks County prison unable to post bail.
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Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.
