Police: Apollo man accused of selling guitar he stole, biting state trooper who arrested him

An Apollo man charged with stealing an electric guitar from a home and selling it to a music shop last month is accused of assaulting a state trooper and biting him on the wrist while being taken into custody Wednesday.

Jack Russell Frain, 34, of the 500 block of Crowe Street was charged with a felony count of burglary, along with theft, receiving stolen property and theft by deception in connection with a Nov. 17 incident reported at a home in the 500 block of Armstrong Avenue.

A state trooper assigned to the Kittanning station wrote in a criminal complaint that he had investigated a report that Frain entered the home and stole an Ibanez guitar, which he then sold to a music store.

A trooper from the Butler station responded about 1 p.m. Wednesday to a 911 call to Frain’s home reporting three young children had been left unattended, investigators said.

When the trooper arrived to investigate, a boy living in the home answered the door and said Frain wasn’t home, according to a separate criminal complaint filed against him.

The trooper wrote he saw Frain on the couch and told him he was being arrested for the November theft and sale of the guitar.

Frain resisted being taken into custody and bit the trooper on the wrist, the complaint said.

Frain was charged with a felony count of aggravated assault and counts of simple assault and resisting arrest.

He was being detained in the Armstrong County Jail in lieu of a $50,000 cash bond to await preliminary hearings for both sets of charges Dec. 14 before District Judge James Andring.

Pending, previous charges

On Nov. 29, Frain pleaded guilty in a Westmoreland County Court to a misdemeanor count of DUI and was sentenced to six months of probation, court records show. The charges were filed by Allegheny Township police in December 2022.

In June 2017, Frain pleaded guilty to a felony count of retail theft and a count of simple assault and was sentenced to two years in jail and two years of probation, court records show. The charges were filed by state police in Greensburg in September 2016.

Frain also pleaded guilty in 2013 to three felony theft charges and was sentenced to one to three years in prison, court records show. The charges were filed by state police in June 2011.