By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Wednesday’s morning session in Crawford County Common Pleas Court was a long one and so were the prison sentences handed down by Judge Sean Leuthold.
Four men were sentenced to prison during the morning portion of the docket, including Darek Dennison. The 30-year-old man from Bucyrus pleaded guilty to nine of 10 felony five counts and was sentenced to consecutive six-month terms on eight of the charges and 11 months on the ninth, also to be served consecutively, for a total of 59 months.
Dennison pleaded guilty to four counts of receiving stolen property, four counts of forgery and one count of breaking and entering. The 11-month sentence was for breaking and entering. Dennison was also ordered to pay restitution.
A 10th charge, misdemeanor receiving stolen property, was dismissed.
“Mr. Dennison, you need to go to prison, the judge said. “It may not do you any good, but it will do the public some good.”
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Derrick Mease received a sentence of four years in prison following his guilty plea to second-
degree felony burglary. Eight years in prison is the maximum sentence that could have been given to Mease.
“. . . . Turn your life around,” Leuthold told Mease. “If not, this is going to keep happening over and over again.”
Mease was fined $1,000 and will be subject to a mandatory period of three years on post-release control following his release from prison.
Thirty-seven-year-old Micah Jones was sentenced to the maximum 18 months in prison, after he pleaded guilty to fourth-degree felony burglary. However, it could have been worse. The original charge was a second-degree felony and amended to the lower level felony.
Jones was also ordered to pay restitution and given the maximum $5,000 fine.
Twenty-nine-year-old Brandon Henak was returned to prison to serve the balance of a 36-month prison sentence. Henak admitted to violating his community control by failing to report to his probation officer and failing to notify him of a change in address.
Henak was convicted in 2012 of third-degree felony drug trafficking and was granted early release from the original prison sentence.
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Four people were also sentenced to five years of community control, even though two of them were prison eligible according to state sentencing guidelines.
“I don’t believe in any way, shape or form they were the leaders,” the judge said of Cordale Davis and Kierston Grindle.
Davis pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking, one count in the third degree and the other in the fourth degree.
“I’m going to give you a break I don’t normally give,” Leuthold told Davis. “But I believe it’s the right thing to do in this case.”
Davis was also fined $5,000 in addition to a mandatory driver’s license suspension.
The judge noted Grindle’s excellent record in going over her pre-sentence investigation report.
Grindle pleaded guilty to third-degree felony tampering with evidence and fifth-degree felony drug trafficking. Her sentence included a $1,250 fine, driver’s license suspension and drug and alcohol assessment.
Twenty-five-year-old Kara Ohler pleaded guilty to two counts of fourth-degree felony drug trafficking.
“I’m going to be blunt with you, you are a train wreck,” the judge told Ohler. “I can’t in good conscience send you back out there.”
As part of the condition of her community control, Ohler was also sentenced to eight days in the county jail and will be placed in the court’s ISAT program.
Like Ohler, 56-year-old Steven Young was not prison eligible. He pleaded guilty to felony five drug possession.