BERRIEN COUNTY TRIAL COURT NEWS

NILES – One of three Twin Cities youths who robbed a friend in 2014 has been resentenced this week in Berrien County Trial Court. His resentencing is the latest done in the wake of a 2015 Michigan Supreme Court ruling that made sentencing guidelines advisory only.
Warren Clark, 20, was resentenced by Berrien County Trial Judge Angela Pasula after a Michigan Supreme Court ruling remanded the case back to her. The Supreme Court ruled that Clark was entitled to a new sentencing because of their 2015 Lockridge decision.
Previously, judges could depart up or down from the sentencing guidelines only when there were “substantial and compelling reasons” to do so. The justices found that the mandatory guidelines could be scored based on facts that had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt which they said violated defendants’ constitutional rights.
Judge Pasula originally sentenced Clark on April 16, 2015 to a prison term of 51 months to 40 years for armed robbery. Monday, she resentenced Clark to a prison term of 46 months to 50 years. Clark has credit for 793 days already served and must still pay the fines, costs and restitution originally assessed.
Clark was one of three area youths sentenced in April 2015 for a Dec. 3, 2014 robbery of a young man in the 800 block of Lions Park Drive in St. Joseph. The three knew the victim and lured him out of his home, assaulted him and robbed him of his I-phone which they planned to sell for cash. They used a toy pistol in the commission of the robbery.
Clark’s appellate attorney, Chari Grove, asked for a shorter sentence. She noted that Clark has strong family support and has availed himself of educational and other programs while in prison. “He was very remorseful then and is very remorseful today,” she said. “He’s enrolled in a community college and has a bright future.”
“I would suggest that a sentence of less than 51 months would be proportionate. He’s very young, he has extreme remorse and has strong family support.”
Clark said he had learned his lesson. “I just want to go home to support my family and make my parents proud,” he said. “I want to teach my younger brother and my cousins to learn from me, to not go down this road and that what I did is not the right way to live.”
Assistant Prosecutor Gerald Vigansky asked Pasula to impose the same sentence she did two years ago.
In resentencing Clark, Pasula first vacated the original sentence after determining that she would not have imposed the 51 month prison sentence back then if the guidelines had been advisory only.
Pasula did say that the circumstances of the offense had not changed. “This was an extremely serious offense, don’t think for one second that the fact you’re standing here negates that,” she said. “This was a betrayal of trust and a premeditated act of violence.”
“I was disturbed originally and now. You had prior theft offenses and you took a theft offense and took it a higher level when you introduced a weapon and the threat of violence. Most people come to court zero times and you’re here for a third time on an act of violence.”
“I can’t imagine anything I tell you underscores the seriousness of this offense more than the experience you have had in prison,” the judge said. “I hope you do turn things around. You’re a young man and you have a long life ahead of you, but it’s up to you.”
Clark’s two co-defendants, Aaron Bogan and Chester Sanders, both of Benton Harbor, received shorter prison terms for armed robbery. Each received a sentence of 27 months in prison and could be released as early as next month on March 15.