On Dec. 21 in Scott Circuit Court, Brittany Hurtt, 35, of Austin pleaded “guilty but mentally ill” to charges of attempted kidnapping and kidnapping for her actions on Jan. 2, 2023.
On that date, she entered upon the playground of the Austin Elementary School, attempted to take a student who pulled away, and took another student from the playground. She took that student to her home where her husband quickly began the process to return the child to school. However, before getting to school, the Austin Police Department was on scene and recovered the child. When the police arrived, in addition to other odd behaviors, Hurtt said that the kids were being controlled by computers.
Hurtt was sentenced to a total of eight years given credit for 354 days in the Scott County Jail awaiting this resolution, according to Scott County Prosecutor Chris Owens. In addition to the time served in jail, she will serve two years on home detention, followed by the remainder of the eight year sentence on probation under the supervision of the Scott County Probation Department.
“A ‘guilty but mentally ill’ plea is not something that occurs often in the criminal justice system and in my twenty years as a lawyer, I have been involved with only a handful of cases with this type of plea,” said Owens. “Given the psychiatric evaluation report obtained in this case, the facts and circumstances surrounding what occurred, and the law in Indiana regarding what is known to the general public as temporary insanity, this resolution was the best way to see that Hurtt not only obtained consequences for her actions, but also to see that she received adequate supervision to provide safety to our community.”
Owens said the prosecutor’s office met and spoke with the families of the victims on multiple occasions, and this agreement was entered into with their approval.
Additional terms of the sentence are that Hurtt shall have no contact with the victims, shall not enter the property where the victims reside, shall not enter property of Scott County School District 1, and shall obtain a mental health assessment approved by the supervising agencies and follow all recommendations thereof.
“The day this incident occurred is a day in my career as a prosecutor that I will always remember, and I am thankful for the quick work of the Austin Police Department to locate and ensure the safety of the children involved,” Owens said.