A Stoney Creek man pleaded guilty in court Monday after a weekend arrest in which police said he attempted to break into his ex-girlfriend’s home with a shovel.

Officers of the Elizabethton Police Department arrested Randy Pritchard, 20, of 195 Dry Branch Road on Friday afternoon and charged him with violation of an order of protection and vandalism.

Shortly after 3 p.m. Friday, EPD Sgt. Curtis Bullock and other officers responded to an apartment on South Hills Driver after a 911 caller said a fight might be in progress at the apartment, as well as a possible protective order violation.

When Bullock arrived, a person inside the apartment told police Pritchard was behind the apartment.

When Bullock went to the back of the apartment, he saw a man holding a shovel and standing next to an open window, he said, adding the metal window screen had been damaged and was lying on the ground. Officers detained the man and placed him in handcuffs, Bullock said. The suspect’s driver’s license identified him as Pritchard.

Pritchard told police that he used the shovel to open the window so that he could climb inside and get his medication, Bullock said.

Bullock then spoke to the resident of the apartment, who identified Pritchard as her ex-boyfriend and told officers she had an order of protection against him and that she did not want him at her home.

In addition to the damage to the window screen, the woman told officers Pritchard had also damaged the handles on the apartment’s front and rear doors.

Bullock learned that an order of protection had been filed against Pritchard in November.

While officers were on the scene, Bullock spoke with Elizabethton Housing Development agency Director Kelly Geagley, who requested Pritchard be added to the agency’s trespass list and banned from all EHDA properties.

Pritchard was arraigned in Carter County General Sessions Court on Monday and entered a guilty plea to both charges against him.

He was sentenced to a $10 fine and ordered to pay court costs on the conviction for violation of an order of protection. He was sentenced to a $25 fine and 11 months 29 days probation as well as paying court costs on the vandalism conviction.

Pritchard was also ordered by the court to have no contact with the victim in the two cases.