Indiana County’s Court will be busy today with several plea and sentencing hearings. One case is for a man who used an Apple Airtag to track his ex-girlfriend without her knowledge.
Court documents show 34-year-old Danish Ali pleaded guilty on July 11th to charges of stalking and harassment, while a charge of criminal use of a communications facility was withdrawn at the lower court. State police say on January 29th, a 32-year-old woman went to the state police barracks in Indiana asking troopers to help her and her father search her vehicle for the Airtag, which she noticed was trying to connect to her phone. Officers found the device fixed to the passenger side rear wheel well with duct tape. Officers were able to trace it to Ali, who admitted to police that he put the device on the vehicle two days prior to her discovery of it.
Also due for sentencing today is Matthew Lee Smith. The 49-year-old Indiana man pleaded guilty to reckless burning or exploding for an incident on September 15th of 2023. State police accused him and Austin Milanos of stealing a vehicle from Indiana Borough, driving it out to a pull off near a railroad crossing south of Route 110 in Rayne Township, dousing it with gas and setting it on fire. Milanos has pleaded guilty in the case and was ordered in October of last year to serve three months to a day less than two years in county jail along with four years of probation.
