CRIMINAL SENTENCING OF PREDATOR, DRUGGIE AND THIEVES

Last week’s court action in Berrien County Trial Court and Cass County Circuit Court included prison terms for Berrien Springs and Edwardsburg residents.
        Wayne Churchill Labins, 52, of Cass Street in Berrien Springs, pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct against a victim under age 13 was sentenced Jan. 2 in Berrien County Trial Court to a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison.
Berrien County Trial Judge Angela Pasula sentenced Labins to a prison term of 25 to 75 years. He has credit for 89 days already served and must pay $1,748 in fines and costs. He must register as a sex offender and be on lifetime GPS monitoring.
The incident occurred Oct. 5 at a residence on Third Street in Berrien Springs when he sexually assaulted a six year old girl. Labins also acknowledged touching the girl inappropriately several times over the past year.
“I still see a lack of acceptance of responsibility for the choices you made,” she said. “This was not beyond your control. Staying away from children, that’s a choice. You’re making tapes about staying away from children but not willing to do that yourself. You’re hiding behind the veil of religion.”
Pasula noted that Labins has a 1993 criminal sexual conduct conviction in California. “You left a good paying job in California to come to Michigan for ministry work,” she said. “This gives me pause. You made a video about how to keep children safe from predators at the same time you were grooming this girl.”
        Jason Scott Ryans, 44, of Old Michigan 205 near Edwardsburg, was sentenced to prison in Cass Circuit Court last week on drug-related charges. He was sentenced to three to 20 years in prison for possession of methamphetamine and possession of marijuana as a habitual offender.
Ryans was arrested May 4, 2017 at a home in Mason Township near Edwardsburg and found to be in possession of both methamphetamine and marijuana.
Ryans’ previous convictions include five from 2007 when he was sentenced to prison after a Cass County jury found him guilty on five methamphetamine and drug lab counts.
In another sentencing in Berrien County Trial Court, a Berrien Springs man was sentenced to probation and jail after breaking into a nearby home.
Kamanzi Mwema Ntaganda, 47, of North Main Street in Berrien Springs, pleaded guilty earlier to third-degree home invasion and was sentenced Jan. 2 to three years probation, 180 days in jail, 90 days tether and $1,318 in fines and costs.
The incident occurred Oct. 21 at a home on Maplewood Drive in Berrien Springs. The victim said she and her two daughters were attending a high school football game and her 14 year old daughter came home early to see the back door open and a man fleeing. Ntaganda was identified after a security camera at the home was examined.
Ntaganda apologized and blamed the incident on different customs here as compared to the Congo where he’s lived in recent years before coming back here to take care of his elderly parents.
“I walked in and started thinking I’m not back in the Congo so I left,” he said. “I told police I realized I should have gone in and that it was my fault.”
Judge Pasula called his statement about different customs “disingenuous” and “a really lame excuse,” noting he has three other theft related convictions in the past.
A Granger youth who took part in a June home invasion at a cabin on Bachelor Island in the St. Joseph River near Buchanan is getting the chance to keep the charge off his permanent record.
        Kyle Robert Tengelitsch, 20, of Granger, pleaded guilty to second-degree home invasion under the Holmes Youthful Training Act and was placed on two years probation. He must perform 50 hours of community service and pay $878 in fines, costs and restitution. If he completes all the terms, the charge will be taken off his record.
The incident occurred June 24 when he and another young man, Zachary Smith, broke into a cabin on Bachelor Island and stole some guns and other items.
Smith, 22, of Elkhart, was sentenced in late November to two years probation, 50 hours of community service and $918 in fines and costs for larceny of a weapon.