Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

CASSOPOLIS — A Niles man who didn’t show up for court for five years won’t get a mulligan and a free pass as he was sentenced to jail and probation Friday in Cass County Circuit Court.

      Nicholas Adam Utz, 43, of Reum Road in Niles, pleaded guilty to  possession of methamphetamine and was sentenced to two years probation, five months in jail with credit for 108 days served and $1,548 in fines and costs.

      The incident occurred Jan. 13, 2020 during a traffic stop in Milton Township. He was found to have a suspended license and a meth pipe in his pocket.

      Cass County Circuit Court Judge Mark Herman noted that Utz pleaded guilty back in 2020 to the meth possession charge and was released from jail due to COVID restrictions.

“You chose to abscond, that’s not a wise choice,” the judge said.

      “How is meth working out for you?” he asked Utz. “It’s not good. You’ve been through Twin County and obviously got yourself in this situation. You’re 43, your going to be old in a hurry and have nothing to show for it if you don’t change.”

      The judge noted that Utz has had five high severity felonies and had absconded from other courts in the years since this incident.

“I can’t give you credit for time served,” he said. “I can’t give you a mulligan, I don’t think you get a freebie. You knew you wouldn’t get jail if you showed up then, you knew you had a sentencing and you didn’t show up.”

“When you don’t show up for your sentencing when you know it’s coming, you don’t get credit for time served,” Herman said. “When you fail to appear in court, the consequences are always worse. This is not the only court you failed to appear in.”

Defense attorney Greg Feldman claimed that Utz had been brought to the Cass County jail in the intervening years but was able to bond out because information about this case had not been entered into the system. He said that Utz hadn’t profited from not serving a jail sentence back in 2020 and in fact has spent over a year in jail since then.