By By MARCIA STEFFENS / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS – Three young men will be spending time together, but not in a way they might like.
On Nov. 11, 2006, the three invaded the home of their former employer on Lakeview Drive in Vandalia, removing guns, tools and cash amounting to a value of nearly $10,000.
All three were sent to the Michigan Department of Corrections Friday morning by Cass County Circuit Judge Michael E. Dodge.
Adam Baxter, 23, of 58041 M-62, Cassopolis, Nathan Deans, 18, of 60606 White Temple, Vandalia, and Paul Schoenborn, 20, of 14330 M-40, Jones, were all given the charge to pay $9,620 in restitution, along with a $60 crime victim fee, $60 state costs, $450 court costs and $350 attorney fees.
Baxter was given 91 days credit toward his sentence of two to 20 years in prison. Deans, who had been on probation when the home invasion happened, was sentenced to five to 20 years, with 83 days credit.
Schoenborn, who already had a juvenile record, also received five to 20 years, with 93 days credit. He also received 94 days in jail with 94 days credit for taking money and cigarettes from his mother.
In other sentencings:
Amber Laylin, 21, 419 E. St., Goshen, Ind. was one of a group who broke into a lake home of a family on Dutch Settlement Road in Dowagiac on May 15, 2006.
The mother of four told the court how traumatic it was for her children to find all their Christmas presents gone along with other toys, electronics and any other valuable items, including the vacuum cleaner.
Even worse was the fact they took food, flour, sugar and spices, and spread them all over the home. "There was no reason to trash it," the victim said.
"These are not just property crimes, they affect individuals," Prosecutor Victor Fitz said.
Laylin, who turned herself in to the police, was sentenced to 150 days in jail, with 67 days served. She will also be on probation for 18 months.
She is to pay $10 a month probation fees, a $60 Crime Victim fee, $60 state costs, $450 court costs, $350 attorney fees, and $6,700 in restitution.
Herbert Wall, 42, 69425 M-62, Edwardsburg, had a blood alcohol level of .21, when he was stopped for speeding on Dec. 16, 2006, on M-62 in Edwardsburg.
"Alcohol is his master," said Fitz. He asked Dodge to "protect the public" from this habitual offender. Wall has been paroled from Berrien County in June, six months before he was stopped in Edwardsburg, Dodge said.
"You represent a serious threat to other innocent drivers," Dodge said.
Wall was sentenced to the Michigan Department of Corrections for two to seven and a half years, to be consecutive with his Berrien County time.
For having an open container, he was sentenced to 84 days, with 84 days credit. He is to pay a $60 Crime Victim fee, $60 state costs, $450 court costs, $350 attorney fees, a $500 fine and $260 in restitution.
Sharon Collins, 49, 101 Grove St., Dowagiac, will serve 180 days in jail with credit for 100 days for possession with intent to deliver cocaine. On Nov. 29, 2006, she sold less than 50 grams to a police informant for $60 on Grove Street in Dowagiac. Later that day her home was searched and a rock and pipe were found.
You lost your job as manager of the Burger King, Dodge told her, after you failed a drug test.
Saying she testified for the prosecutor's office in another case, Fitz asked Dodge to deviate below her guideline of 10 to 23 months.
She is to pay a $60 Crime Victim fee and $60 state costs.