By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
This week’s court news include arrests, guilty pleas and sentencings.
Justin Bashore, 32, of Niles was arrested last week in connection with a Sept. 7
incident involving a called in threat at Eau Claire High School in Berrien Township. Bashore was identified a short time later as the suspect in the case and was arrested last week.
On Sept. 7, the Berrien County Public Safety Dispatch Center received a 9-1-1 call that stated that a teenage male was in the bathroom of the high school with a rifle. The high school was evacuated and a search of the building found no threat.
Bashore is charged with false reporting of a felony and resisting and obstructing police. He will be in court Oct. 10 for a pre-exam conference. He also has warrants out against him for child support in both Berrien and Cass Counties and for domestic violence in Dowagiac.
A Niles man is going back to prison after being caught with methamphetamines inside a parked car in July.
Jonas Tyrone Holmes, 36, of Cass Street in Niles, pleaded guilty to delivery/manufacture of methamphetamines and was sentenced Monday in Berrien County Trial Court to 51 months to 20 years in prison. He has credit for no time served as he was on parole at the time of the incident. He must pay $198 in fines and costs.
The incident occurred July 25 at Maple Street and South 11th Street in Niles. Police were investigating a suspicious parked vehicle and found two people laying back in the car. Holmes was the passenger and was found with both marijuana and 10 grams of meth.
Holmes was on parole since April 2017 from a January 2015 sentence for being a prisoner in possession of a weapon. His previous record includes a March 2005 conviction for armed robbery and an October 2002 sentence for possession of cocaine.
“He’s very self aware that he screwed up,” defense attorney Scott Sanford said. “He knows he made a bad decision and accepts responsibility.”
“It’s a shame, you’re giving up big chunks of life on bad decisions,” Berrien County Trial Judge Charles LaSata said. “This sentence is consecutive to any sentence for violating your parole.”
In Cass Circuit Court, a Cassopolis man is going to prison for possession of methamphetamines and violating terms of 2016 probations for possession of meth and breaking and entering convictions.
Ryan Ray Deweerd, 34, of Hilton Street in Cassopolis, was found guilty after a jury
trial in late August of possession of methamphetamine as a habitual offender and was sentenced Friday in Cass Circuit Court to two to 20 years in prison on that charge. He has credit for 156 days already served and must pay $1,548.
He was also sentenced to concurrent prison terms for the probation violations from the 2016 cases. He received a term of 78 months to 40 years in prison for operating a meth lab and a term of 46 months to 15 years for breaking and entering. He has credit for 1,347 days already served in those cases.
A Niles teen was sentenced to probation and jail for possession of marijuana and carrying a concealed weapon.
Caleb Hite Ringer, 17, of Huntly Road in Niles, pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana and carrying a concealed weapon and was sentenced to 18 months probation, 90 days in jail with credit for 37 days served, $1,288 in fines and costs and $470 in restitution for the weapon charge. He was given credit for time served and $300 in fines and costs on the marijuana charge.
The incident occurred July 31 at a residence on Wild Street in Howard Township. Ringer and two juveniles approached a man selling a car and robbed him at gunpoint. They ran away after the man chased them with a bat. Ringer was arrested after police traced a text message he sent the man.
Cass Circuit Judge Mark Herman noted that Ringer committed a home invasion in Berrien County just nine days after this incident. Ringer will be sentenced on the home invasion charge in Berrien County Trial Court on Nov. 19.
In Berrien County Trial Court, the wife of a man accused in connection with a March double homicide in Benton Harbor has pleaded guilty to fraud charges. Antwan Mims was scheduled for a preliminary hearing this week on murder charges. He was arrested in Georgia this summer after being placed on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list.
Yalonda Mims pleaded guilty to recording a fraudulent quit claim dead with the intent to defraud and will be sentenced Oct. 29. She is charged with trying to fraudulently sign the house her husband owned in Benton Harbor over to herself while he was on the run.
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