Niles man gets prison time for resisting, obstructing police

Published 12:50 pm Monday, February 27, 2023

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NILES — A Niles man received his second prison sentence in two months Monday in Berrien County Trial Court.

        Kyle Lee Sears, 31, of Sycamore Street in Niles, pleaded guilty to two counts of resisting and obstructing police and was sentenced to concurrent terms of 14 months to two years in prison. He has credit for 54 days served and must pay $266 in fines and costs.

        These two prison terms are concurrent with the prison sentence Sears received in January. He was sentenced Jan. 9 to 20 months to 10 years in prison for possession of methamphetamines earlier in 2022 in Niles. He also was previously sentenced to prison in 2020 for delivery/manufacture of meth from a 2019 incident in Berrien Springs

        The resisting and obstructing incident occurred Oct. 17 in Niles Township. Police came to Sears’ home on calls that he had barricaded himself in the bathroom of the house with a rifle. Police ended up leaving the scene and arresting him at a later date.

        Berrien County Assistant Prosecutor Kate Arnold noted that Sears was out on bond from the meth charge at the time of the incident and was continuing to use meth.

        Sears said there was no excuse for his behavior, apologized and took responsibility for his actions. He said he wanted to make changes in his life.

        “The only person who can make changes in your life is you,” Berrien County Trial Judge Jennifer Smith said. “This could have turned out very badly for you. You make poor decisions when you are using drugs. At this point, there’s nothing else we can do but take you out of the community.”