The Citizen staff report

A man the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office believes is responsible for threatening a Sterling resident with an ax before hacking away at his truck on Nov. 1 was arrested during a search on Tuesday morning, deputies said.

Deputies found Kelly Byrne, 34, formerly of 13885 Humphrey Road, Sterling, as they were traveling to the Humphrey Road area to conduct another search for him with assistance from a state police helicopter, deputies said.

Byrne was found walking on Short Cut Road and was arrested without incident.

Byrne was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the third-degree and criminal mischief in the third-degree, both felonies, and menacing in the second-degree and criminal trespass in the second-degree, both misdemeanors.

Deputies have accused Kelly of living in the victim's hunting camper just off of Short Cut Road in Sterling.

Officials believed Byrne stayed in the camper for an extended period of time because they found soap, razors and Heineken beer inside.

After Byrne confronted the victim, who was checking on his property, he fled in a southwesterly direction on the county nature trail with the ax in hand, deputies said.

Authorities never considered Byrne to be armed and dangerous because he returned the ax to the camper the next day, deputies said.

Byrne was arraigned in the Town of Sterling Court and remanded to the Cayuga County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.