Weapon offenses committed inside Cassopolis jailhouse

Ten months ago, Judge Michael Dodge spared a 16-year-old Dowagiac resident from having to spend a lengthy term in a Michigan penitentiary for a series of breaking and entering charges, instead giving him a local jail sentence and probation.

On Friday, the judge showed no such mercy when that same teenager, Charles Devin Edwards, reappeared in his courtroom, this time for offenses committed inside the

Cassopolis jailhouse where he was serving time.

Dodge sentenced Edwards to a minimum two-year prison term, with a maximum of five years, for possession of weapons inside a jail. Edwards pleaded guilty to the charge on Oct. 17.

The charge stems from a search conducted by corrections officers of Edwards’ jail cell, which took place on July 15. The officers discovered that the inmate had hidden what he described as a FlexPen with a staple sticking out at the end of it, which the guards felt constituted a weapon. They also removed a razor blade that Edwards had hidden in his rectum.

“The reports say that you denied that was yours, that you had been set up or it had been planted there,” Dodge said. “The circumstances described in the presentence report make a pretty compelling argument to satisfy the court that you had been in possession of those weapons.”

Edwards had been previously sentenced to spend one year inside the correctional facility by the judge on May 5. He was tried and convicted of two counts of home invasion as an adult, being waived to the higher court by Probate Judge Sue Dobrich due to the severity of his actions. Despite the sentencing guidelines calling for a mandatory prison sentence, Dodge decided to give him a local sentence instead due to his age.

Edwards’ attorney, Daniel French, asked the judge to consider a similar option in this case as well.

“I don’t think that prison is the answer,” French said. “I don’t think it’s going to solve his problems, and that he’ll come out magically a new person. It’s only going to compound his problems and society is going to have to keep dealing with them for the rest of his life.”

The judge, though, disagreed, saying that his prior leniency has only sent the teenager back to the courthouse.

“I can’t find any substantial and compelling reasons to sentence you below these guidelines, I just can’t,” Dodge told him. “I couldn’t identify anything on the record that supports that.”

Also sentenced Friday:

• Charles Richard Feathers, 67, of Cassopolis, to two years of probation for the manufacture of marijuana.

• Daniel Thomas Ming, 30, of Cassopolis, to one year of probation for the delivery of marijuana.

• David Leroy Schrock, 54, of Goshen, to 180 days in jail for resisting arrest.