By AARON MUELLER

Cassopolis Vigilant

A Cassopolis man was sentenced to 81 months to 25 years in prison for operating a methamphetamine lab and possession of a firearm by a felon at Cass County Circuit Court Friday.

During his statements to the court, Mathew Nichols, 35, said after losing his job, he turn to meth.

“When a man loses his job, it does something to him,” Nichols said, choking back tears. “It makes him go to desperate and sometimes criminal measures.”

Nichols is a father of two daughters, who were in attendance in the courtroom to support him.

Nichols said he was active in the PTA at his daughters’ school and helped coach their softball teams.

“I love being a dad,” he said. “There’s nothing greater than having a family. I apologize to my girls. They shouldn’t have to deal with this.”

One of his daughters, who was crying in the back of the courtroom, whispered back: “I love you too.”

Despite Nichols’ request for a lenient sentence below the sentencing guidelines to be there for his family, Judge Michael Dodge said he could not find “substantial and compelling” reason to deviate from the guidelines.

In February detectives with the Cass County Drug Enforcement Team located a meth lab in a shed on Nichols’ property. Inside the home they found three handguns, which he was not allowed to possess due to a past felony conviction.

Prosecutor Victor Fitz called the comination of meth and firearms a “double dose of danger.”

“Methamphetamine activity is very volatile and dangerous, as evidenced by the fire this week in Cass County,” Fitz said. “Weapons only elevate the danger.”

Fitz said the “laundry list” of meth components found in his shed made it clear Nichols was “immersed” in meth production. The prosecutor called for a strict sentence toward the high end of the guidelines, because “a message needs to be sent to the county.”