Sentencings last week in 33rd Circuit Court:

Dennis Robert McKee, 21, Charlevoix was sentenced to 36 to 120 months in prison on a conviction by  plea to larceny from a person.  McKee admitted robbing the Charlevoix E-Z Mart of approximately $350 on December 14, 2014 using a CO2 powered revolver.

McKee and a co-defendant both pleaded guilty earlier to robbing the same store on March 26, 2013.  McKee was also sentenced to 36 to 120 months on that charge.

On the most recent sentence, McKee received credit for 166 days already served, his sentence beginning at the time of his arrest on the second charge.  The two sentences will be served concurrently, meaning that he will earn credit for both sentences at the same time.

The Michigan Sentencing Guidelines, which are now advisory, called for a minimum range of 10 to 23 months but Charlevoix County Prosecuting Attorney Allen Telgenhof argued this range was inadequate and did not consider the fact that McKee robbed the same store on two separate occasions, that his actions had a tremendous psychological impact on the victim and that McKee had lied under oath, implicating another person in the crime which led to their arrest and incarceration initially.

Judge Roy C. Hayes III agreed and gave McKee the same sentence as he had received on the earlier conviction.  McKee has been incarcerated at the Carson City Correctional Facility.

Stephan Drew Cahoon, 28, Boyne City, was sentenced to 12 months in jail on a conviction of possession of heroin, subject to enhancement as a subsequent drug conviction.  Cahoon had pleaded guilty earlier to the charge as part of a plea agreement wherein a charge of possession with intent to deliver was dismissed.

The Joint Operational Law Enforcement Team (“JOLT”) received a tip that Cahoon was making trips to the Detroit area to pick up drugs to bring to Charlevoix County.  Acting on this information, officers sought and obtained court permission to place a GPS tracker on Cahoon’s vehicle.

Cahoon’s vehicle was tracked going to and from metro Detroit on two occasions and on December 7, 2015, he was stopped by JOLT officers who searched the vehicle and discovered 6.5 grams of heroin hidden in the vehicle’s windshield solvent container.

The sentencing guidelines recommended a minimum range of 2 to 17 months.  As such, had Cahoon been sentenced to prison, a term of 17 to 96 months would have been within the guideline range.