COURT NEWS

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent

This week’s court news includes a verdict in the John Benton Lewis

murder case, a preliminary hearing for the two people accused of killing an Army soldier on New Year’s Eve, the arraignment of a Michigan State Police trooper on an embezzlement charge and sentencings.

The jury in the John Benton Lewis murder trial came back with a guilty verdict last Tuesday. Lewis is now convicted in the August 2017 murder of his wife, Carla, inside their Niles Township home. He is scheduled to be sentenced to the mandatory life in prison on March 25.

Testimony in the two week trial showed that Lewis was having affairs and hoped to gain more than $300,000 in life insurance from her death. The defense continued to say that Lewis was not the killer and noted that the murder weapon has never been found and that police have not addressed how Carla Lewis’ vehicle ended up 10 miles away that day.

 

Preliminary hearings were also held last week for the two people accused of the Dec. 31 murder of Benton Harbor native Tyrone Hassel III who had been home on leave from the army at the time of his death. The murder occurred outside his father’s home in St. Joseph Township near Benton Harbor.

Hassel’s wife, Kemia, and Jeremy Cuellar are accused in the killing. All three were in the U.S. Army and testimony last week indicated that Kemia Hassel and Cuellar planned the shooting months ago when all three were deployed to South Korea. The alleged motive for the shooting was that they were having an affair and wanted his life insurance money.

The two were bound over for trial by Berrien County Trial Judge Sterling Schrock on charges of first-degree premeditated murder. Cuellar also faces a felony firearms charge. Trials for the two have been set to start April 30.

Michigan State Police Trooper Jesse Binns faces one charge of embezzlement over $1,000 and under $20,000 from a nonprofit or charitable organization in Cass County District Court. He was arraigned last week and faces a probable cause conference this week.

The alleged embezzlement stems from Binns’ time serving as the assistant fire chief at the Cass Central Fire Department. Binns has been suspended without pay from the state police since September and is also on leave from the fire department.

In sentencings, an Elkhart teen was sentenced to prison for the armed robbery of an Edwardsburg youth over a pair of Gucci sandals.

Miguel Angel Canales, 17, of Elkhart, was sentenced in Cass Circuit Court last week after earlier pleading guilty to armed robbery. He received a prison sentence of 36 months to 20 years. He has credit for 159 days already served and must pay $1,108 in fines and costs.

The incident occurred Sept. 16 on Elkhart Road and Filmore Street in Ontwa Township. Cass Circuit Judge Mark Herman noted that Canales and his co-defendant, Crystal Badillo, met

an underage individual to buy a pair of Gucci sandals for $25. Canales pulled a gun and then left the scene.

Judge Herman did deviate downwards from the sentencing guidelines which called for a minimum prison sentence of 51 months. With a 36 month prison sentence, Canales is now eligible to serve part of his sentence in boot camp.

Canales also faces possible deportation as he is in the country illegally. Defense attorney Robert Drake noted that Canales’ parents brought him to this country from Mexico when he was two. “His immigration status is not his fault,” he said.

Badillo, 17, of Goshen, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery from the same incident and was sentenced to three years probation and credit for time served, 159 days.

A Buchanan resident was sentenced to jail and probation for computer and other crimes in Berrien County Trial Court this week.

Scott Brandon Hopkins, 29, of North Red Bud Trail in Buchanan pleaded guilty to using a computer to commit a crime-surveilling unclothed persons and surveilling unclothed persons and was sentenced to three years probation, 180 days in jail and fines and costs of $958.

He can have no contact with anyone age 17 or younger, must undergo sex offender treatment, cannot possess any photographic equipment and cannot have a profile on a social network.

“These are troubling crimes,” Berrien County Trial Judge Charles LaSata said. “You’re a fairly sophisticated offender using dark websites but law enforcement is sophisticated too.”

The incident occurred March 9, 2018 in the city of Niles and Buchanan Township when he was found in possession of illegal pornographic images and other sexually abusive materials.

A Buchanan woman was sentenced to jail on a drug charge.

 

Glenda Deeann Allender, 38, of West Alexander Street in Buchanan, pleaded guilty to use of cocaine and was sentenced to 210 days in jail and fines and costs of $198. She has credit for 124 days already served.

The incident occurred Oct. 25 in Buchanan.

“You have quite a record, you started using marijuana at age 16,” Judge LaSata said. “… You’re 38 years old, what’s it going to take to change your life? Life is passing you by, you’re doing life in jail by the installment plan.”