ASHLAND — Ashland’s so-called Shoe Bandit is going to prison for three years.
Tommy Norris, 52, of Ashland faced Ashland County Common Pleas Judge Dave Stimpert on Monday for his sentencing hearing stemming from a July case.
Police charged Norris with burglary after searching his home on Cottage Street in mid-July. At the time, police said they found “over 100” pairs of shoes inside.
An Ashland County grand jury then indicted Norris with aggravated possession of methamphetamine a month later, court records show.
Ultimately, Norris received two concurrent prison terms totaling three years. But his attorney, Zachuary Meranda, asked for community control.
He said Norris had served five months in jail awaiting the conclusion of the criminal case, and has engaged in jail activities, along with an Ashland County Council of Alcohol and Drug Abuse program.
Meranda added that Norris fears for the condition of his house as temperatures dip into single digits.
Norris, appearing before the court via video from Ashland County Jail, apologized.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t feel terrible for my actions. I inadvertently created a stigmata that will haunt me the rest of my life. Words can’t describe how sorry I am,” he said, before asking for forgiveness.
He also vowed this would never happen again.
‘Hundreds of pairs of shoes’
Ashland County Assistant Prosecutor Matt Metcalf during Monday’s hearing urged the judge to consider a prison sanction. He referenced Norris’ long list of criminal misdemeanors dating back to 2000.
“Every year since then almost, he’s committed some type of crime,” he said. “So that’s like 25 years ago. Almost every year, he’s committed some kind of offense.”
Metcalf referenced the court’s pre-sentence investigation, where Norris admits to taking four or five pairs of shoes.
“He makes it seem like this was a one-off thing, not something he would typically do,” Metcalf said.
But the prosecutor pushed back on that notion.
“There was hundreds of pairs of shoes found in this defendant’s house. Hundreds. Not 100, multiple hundreds of pairs of shoes found in a pile in this defendant’s house, which has now been condemned,” Metcalf said.
Authorities later also found meth and paraphernalia in the house.
Norris told authorities the hundreds of shoes were bought and resold for “honest profit,” Metcalf said.
The prosecutor posited he thinks stealing shoes off Ashland porches is something Norris has done for years. But then he got caught, Metcalf said.
Ashland police had received six reports since June 2024 related to missing shoes before arresting Norris.
People resorted to social media since at least February 2024 to complain about the “Shoe Bandit,” a nickname given to the person seen in videos snatching shoes off porches in the wee hours of the night.
Metcalf asked the judge to sentence Norris to two years in prison.
Stimpert, however, handed Norris the maximum prison sentence of 36 months, for the burglary charge. He tacked on another 12-month term for the aggravated possession of drugs, but that term will be served concurrently.
The judge said the case boils down to Norris’ “disregard to the public well-being.”
“You were repeatedly going into people’s enclosed porches at night and taking shoes. Which is certainly odd behavior, but beyond that, you were repeatedly violating peoples’ sense of safety. If you can’t feel safe in your own home, I don’t know where you can,” Stimpert said.
Norris will also face a mandatory post-release control sanction of one to three years, and court costs associated with the case.
Norris’ house
Before the hearing ended, Norris pleaded with the court to not demolish his house, which is listed in court documents as 612 Cottage St. County real estate records show he obtained the house in January 2022.
“That’s not anything I have say over, Mr. Norris,” Stimpert said.
The house is slated for demolition. It is part of a list that Ashland Area Economic Development included in a grant application for demolition funding.