CASS COUNTY TRIAL COURT NEWS

CASSOPOLIS – Last week’s court news included a forensics report on a man who stabbed his mother in Berrien Springs more than a year ago as well as sentencings in a 2006 cold case and a March 2016 incident where a man tried to set his girlfriend’s home on fire.
A Berrien Springs man has been found incompetent to stand trial after a forensic examination. Paul Bryant Howard is accused of stabbing his mother in a June, 2015 incident.
Howard, 38, of U.S. 31 in Berrien Springs, was found incompetent to stand trial on an assault with intent to murder charge by Berrien County Trial Judge Dennis Wiley. Berrien County Assistant Prosecutor Cortney O’Malley said the felony charge has been dismissed and Howard has been committed to a state mental hospital.
Howard is accused in the June 17, 2015 stabbing of his mother, Sharie Howard, 68, also of U.S. 31. Both resided in the same apartment at Timber Ridge Manor on U.S. 31 in Berrien Springs.
Howard was arrested after police were called to the residence on a report of domestic violence. They found Sharie Howard stabbed in the neck and abdomen. She told police that her son had stabbed her with a kitchen knife during an argument. She was transported to Lakeland Medical Center in St. Joseph where she underwent surgery.
A forensic examination for Howard was ordered last summer. O’Malley said the case against Howard was dismissed because he wasn’t able to be brought to competency within 15 months of the incident as required by law.
She said Howard has been committed to a state mental hospital and will have his status reviewed periodically.
The Friday sentencings of Trevin Deshon Safford of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Daniel Eugene Thornton of Niles were among the last sentencings of Cass Circuit Judge Michael Dodge. Judge Dodge is officially retiring at the end of the year and last Friday was his last day of circuit court sentences.
Safford, 28, pleaded no contest to four counts associated with the Dec. 18, 2006 armed robbery of the Family Dollar store in Edwardsburg; one count of safe breaking, one count of armed robbery, one count of conspiracy to commit safe breaking and one count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
Safford received four concurrent terms of five years in prison. He has credit for 493 days served and must pay $962 in fines and costs.
Judge Dodge noted that the five year prison term came as a result of a plea agreement after a June trial ended in a hung jury. He said he recognized that Safford wanted to avoid the risk of facing 11 or more years in prison if convicted at another trial and the prosecution wanted to avoid the risk of a retrial and spare the victims from further testimony.
The plea agreement called for eight other felony counts being dismissed including six counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, one count of carrying a dangerous weapon and one count of unlawful imprisonment. If he had been convicted of all 12 counts, he would likely have received a much longer prison sentence.
The Family Dollar armed robbery occurred Dec. 18, 2006 in Edwardsburg with more than $1,000 taken from the store safe. Two men wearing bandanas and masks forced their way into the store at closing time. They tied up the two clerks and fled with money from the safe.
The case went unsolved for nearly nine years before charges were authorized against Safford a year ago in June 2015. Safford was identified as a suspect after DNA analysis of a shoelace used to tie up one of the store clerks found him to be a match.
A Niles man is going to prison after trying to set fire to the home of his girlfriend while barricading her and others inside.
Daniel Eugene Thornton, 40, of Huntly Road, pleaded guilty to six felony charges and was sentenced in Cass Circuit Court to six concurrent prison terms including two terms of 10 years in prison for second degree arson and unlawful imprisonment.
He was also sentenced to one term of five years in prison for assault by strangulation and three terms of two years in prison for two counts assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of resisting police causing injury. All terms are concurrent.
The incident occurred March 1 at a home on Huntly Road in Howard Township near Niles when Thornton got into an argument with his girlfriend, assaulted her and then barricaded her and two other people in a bedroom while he set fires in and around the house. He later got into an altercation with a police officer and chipped the officer’s tooth.
“March 1 was an absolute disaster for the defendant the victims he imperiled,” Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz said. “If he had been successful in burning the house down, there could have been far worse consequences.”
Defense attorney Greg Feldman said Thornton was off his medications at the time. “He’s remorseful for his actions,” he said. “He knows what he did was wrong. Hopefully he can get help.”
Cass Circuit Judge Michael Dodge noted Thornton has seven prior felony convictions and has been to prison before. At the time of this incident, he was out on bond after pleading guilty to attempted illegal use of a financial transaction device in Berrien County.
“There is not a whole lot of positive I can point to in this situation,” he said. “You acknowledged that you tried to nail them in the house and set it on fire … You are undoubtedly a changed person with your medications, but you pose a significant danger to society.”