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CASSOPOLIS — A Dowagiac man who shot a woman in Cassopolis earlier this year was sentenced to three prison terms Friday in Cass County Circuit Court at the Cass County Law & Courts Building.

      Johnathon Abram Barrett, 25, of Twin Shores Drive in Dowagiac, pleaded guilty to felonious assault and carrying a weapon with unlawful intent as a habitual offender and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and was sentenced to three prison terms and $2,684 in fines and costs. He has credit for 139 days served.

      Barrett was sentenced to 21 months to six years in prison on the felonious assault charge and 24 months to seven and a half years in prison on the carrying a weapon with unlawful intent charge. Those two terms are concurrent but are consecutive to the mandatory two year prison term for use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

      The incident occurred Jan. 5 at a residence on O’Keefe Street in LaGrange Township near Cassopolis. Barrett and another man, Joseph Ward, got into an altercation with a woman at the home and Barrett shot the woman twice in the neck and shoulder. Ward was sentenced last month to 365 days in jail.

      Cass County Assistant Prosecutor Jason Ronning reported that Barrett was arraigned Thursday in Cass County District Court in criminal sexual conduct and accosting children for immoral purposes charges and also has a pending criminal sexual conduct case in Berrien County.

      “I remember the investigation in this case and the thing that sticks out to me is that there is absolutely nothing mitigating or redeeming about the defendant in this case,” Ronning said. “He was inches away from shooting the woman in the face.”

      “He has an appalling and shocking record the last five years,” Ronning added. “There have been controlled substance abuse and sex offender registry violations. Here he was shooting the woman because she wouldn’t keep quiet and then hiding the firearm … This woman was inches away from having her head blown off with a shotgun.”

      Barrett’s defense attorney disagreed. He said there were a number of mitigating factors, including the abuse Barrett suffered as a child and the fact this was an accident.

“Yes, it’s a terrible case, it was absolutely reckless that he used a gun to scare her,” he said. “Shooting somebody was an accident.”

“He didn’t mean to shoot the victim,” he added. “I agree that she could have bled out if his aim had been a little different and a different cartridge was used, but it wasn’t an intentional shooting, it was an accident. This was the first assaultive crime on his record.”

“I would just like to apologize to the victim,” Barrett said. “This was a complete accident, I didn’t mean for it to go this far.”

Cass County Circuit Court Judge Mark Herman noted that Barrett could have been facing life in prison if he had used a different shell and his aim was a few inches one way or another.

“You denied you were there,” Judge Herman said. “There were some allegations that this was an accident but stashing the gun and then hiding leads me to believe it wasn’t an accident. If it was an accident, I would think that you would stay at the scene and wouldn’t leave, stash your weapon and deny you were there.”

The judge pointed out that everyone involved in the incident had been using methamphetamine.

“You’d been using meth daily for the three years prior,” he said. “I think meth played a big role in the incident in why she was acting erratically, why you were acting erratically and why the other person handed you a gun to get her to quiet down.”