LOCAL COURT DOCKETS FILLED WITH HIGH PROFILE CASES

ST. JOSEPH – Recent court and law enforcement news includes updates on three high profile cases, the second murder in less than a month in the Niles area and sentencings.
As the Berrien County Record went to press earlier this week, police were still investigating a Sunday homicide in Niles Township. Berrien County Undersheriff Charles Heit reported that police were called to the 1400 block of Lawndale Avenue in southern Niles Township shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday.
The owner of the home, reported to be John Benton Lewis, told police that he and his wife, Carla, returned home to find two unknown males in their home. His wife was shot and killed and the men allegedly left and stole his wife’s car, a Mazda CX-9.
According to media reports, Lewis himself was arrested and lodged for not being in compliance with the Medical Marijuana Act.
The suspect in a late July Niles murder had been scheduled to be in court this week but had his preliminary hearing delayed.
The man accused in the late July murder of his girlfriend in Niles had been scheduled to be in Berrien County Trial Court Tuesday morning for a preliminary hearing. James Parker Huffman, 52, faces a charge of open murder and is in the Berrien County Jail in lieu of $1 million.
Huffman walked into the Niles Law Enforcement Complex on July 24, telling police he had strangled his girlfriend, Angela Glara Cluver, 52, at their South 14th Street home on July 21. He said they had had a suicide pact and that he tried but failed to kill himself.
The man accused in the January 2016 murders of his ex-girlfriend and her father near Coloma is set for a Oct. 17 trial in Berrien County Trial Court. Alex Perez is in jail in lieu of $5 million bond for the murders of Renee Mitchell and her father, John Mitchell. Perez took his two young daughters across country before being arrested in Colorado.
Perez, 25, has been found competent to stand trial after getting psychiatric treatment at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry. He received that treatment after originally being ruled incompetent to stand trial. Although now competent, he continues to receive treatment.
There’s been no plea deal in the Trevor Wise case. Wise appeared in Berrien County Trial Court earlier this month after being found competent to stand trial.
Wise, 19, of Middlebury, Ind., faces charges in connection with the Feb. 20 attack on Michigan State Police Trooper Garry Guild on the U.S. 31 freeway between Berrien Springs and Niles. Guild stopped Wise’s half-brother, Michael Scott Barber, for speeding and Wise stopped and attacked Guild.
Barber, 21, of Mishawaka, was sentenced in June to 14 years in prison for his role in the incident. Wise was in court earlier this month and will be back in court Sept. 13 for a status conference in advance of a Sept. 20 file. Wise faces charges including assault by strangulating and resisting and obstructing police causing injury.
In a recent Cass County sentencing, a Dowagiac man who held an acquaintance hostage over a drug and money dispute earlier this year was sentenced to prison.
Ryan McCuddy, 24, of Oak Street in Dowagiac, pleaded guilty to eight felony charges including extortion and unlawful imprisonment and was sentenced Friday in Cass Circuit Court to concurrent prison terms as a habitual offender. He has credit for 163 days already served and must pay $1,674 in fines and costs.
He was sentenced to seven to 20 years in prison for extortion, seven to 15 years for unlawful imprisonment, two to 20 years for delivery/ manufacture of cocaine, two to five years for unlawful driving away of automobile, two to four years for delivery/manufacture of marijuana and three terms of two to four years for assault with a dangerous weapon.
The incident occurred Feb. 24 to March 2 at a home in the 200 block of Oak Street in Dowagiac. McCuddy and the victim, Carlos Belmares of Lawrence, argued about money McCuddy said was missing and he held Belmares at his home for a few days before letting him leave. During that time, he assaulted Belmares and threatened him with a shotgun.
McCuddy was originally charged with 20 counts including one count of kidnapping, one count of maintaining a drug house and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.