A man charged with stalking his ex-girlfriend using an Apple Airtag was sentenced yesterday in Indiana County Court.
34-year-old Danish Ali of Indiana pleaded guilty in July to charges of stalking and harassment for an investigation that started on January 29th. On that day, the victim, a 32-year-old woman went to the state police barracks in Indiana to have them search her car for an Airtag that she found was trying to connect with her phone. Troopers found the device duct-taped to the passenger side rear wheel well and traced it to Ali. He later admitted to police that he planted the Airtag to trace her. Indiana County Judge Michael Clark ordered him to serve four years of probation.
Also sentenced yesterday was 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 said that he and Austin Milanos stole a vehicle from Indiana Borough, drove it to a pull-off near a railroad crossing south of Route 110 in Rayne Township, poured gasoline on it, and set it on fire. Smith was ordered to serve a day less than one to a day less than two years in Indiana County Jail followed by four years of parole. Smith was also sentenced in an unrelated case of simple assault to six months to a year in the county jail. That will run concurrently to the sentence for the burning vehicle case.
