By By NORMA LERNER / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS - Selling stolen firearms at a pawn shop landed a young man a prison term Friday morning in Cass County Circuit Court.
Already serving a 10-year-prison sentence for armed robbery, 20-year-old Jacob Bailey, whose address is listed as the Michigan Department of Corrections, received a 23-month to 10-year concurrent term for selling stolen guns at an Indiana pawn shop.
The guns were reportedly valued at more than $1,000.
Bailey pleaded guilty on June 13 to receiving and concealing firearms for the guns that he got from someone else at a location on Peavine Street near Dowagiac.
Bailey also has a breaking and entering conviction in Berrien County, where the firearms were stolen.
His sentence is consecutive to the Berrien County conviction, said Circuit Judge Michael Dodge as he ordered the prison term.
Dodge recounted that Bailey was on parole from the Berrien County sentence when he committed the offense and gave him the highest term allowable in his guideline range of 10 to 23 months.
His court costs amounted to $920.
In another sentencing, Willie Moore, 20, of Chain Lake Street, Cassopolis, barely missed a prison term for his conviction of attempted first-degree home invasion.
Moore was part of a robbery team where he and his cousin, Simon Ballard, and two others invaded two homes, one in Vandalia on Dec. 29 and one in Cassopolis on Jan. 24.
All four men wore masks, and Simon Ballard received a prison term last week for his part of the offense.
Dodge said it was difficult to know who did what in the crime as those arrested all pointed the finger at each other as they were lying.
However, Moore gave a credible report of what happened and was not the one wielding the weapon.
He could have gotten up to 23 months in prison, but because of his confession, Dodge said he would sentence him to a probation term of one year after first serving 270 days in jail. He warned Moore that the offense could have been "a whole lot worse." Dodge told Moore that if the victim in the Jan. 24 robbery had been killed, Moore would have been facing murder charges as well. Victim Thomas Friend had wrestled the gun away in the Jan. 24 offense and escaped by running down his driveway while being shot at several times.
Friend was present in court but did not speak other than saying he wanted to "put a face with the name."
Moore was ordered to pay $600 in court costs and $808 in restitution.
In other sentencings Friday:
Joshua Cooper, 21, of 53101 Twin Lakes Road, Dowagiac, received two years probation and a suspended 90-day jail term for possession with intent to deliver marijuana on Jan. 26 in Dowagiac and a concurrent credit for three days served for safety inspection of firearms for an unregistered gun also on Jan. 26. He is to pay $1,920 in court costs.
Jerry Thomas, 25, of 426 Marion St., Elkhart, Ind. received a one-year jail term for breaking and entering an unoccupied building, a garage, on Chain Lake Street where he took a cell phone, batteries and other items on May 16. He is to pay restitution of $60 and $120 in costs.
Timmy Warner, 25, 426 Marion St., Elkhart, Ind. received two years probation and a suspended 90-day jail term for possession with intent to deliver marijuana on Jan. 6 in Dowagiac. He is to pay $1,530 in costs.