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CASSOPOLIS – A Three Rivers man who possessed meth when police stopped him near Marcellus will spend the next year in jail after being sentenced Friday in Cass County Circuit Court.

Brandon Wayne Fitzpatrick-Proxmire, 39, of Three Rivers, pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamines and was sentenced to 365 days in jail with credit for four days served. He must pay $1,608 in fines and costs.

The incident occurred Jan. 4 in Marcellus. Police stopped him for speeding and found both meth and an unloaded gun in the car.

Defense attorney Robert Drake noted that Proxmire agreed to the one year in jail sentence because he otherwise would have faced a mandatory two year prison term if convicted of a felony firearm count. He called the case the perfect example of why the courts shouldn’t handle all these types of cases in a “cookie cutter” manner.

“It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances,” Drake said. “It is a possession of meth case which in this case was residue found in a pipe, but his possession of a handgun without a round in it exposes him to the real threat of a mandatory two year prison sentence … He wasn’t using it or wielding it, I think it’s really unfortunate but that is what the law is.”

Cass County Circuit Judge Mark Herman said his hands were somewhat tied as a plea agreement between the defense and prosecution was in place. He noted that if he didn’t accept the agreement and the case went to trial, Proxmire could be subject to a worse sentence.

“Maybe you can look at this as a blessing as to how life could have ended up,” Judge Herman said. “If you had gone more into drugs, your life would have imploded anyway. I can’t name one person whose life was better with drugs.”