COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – A Sherwood man will serve three to 10 years in prison for the assault on a motorist on West Chicago Street in downtown Coldwater last month.
38-year-old Robert Jory Stevens entered guilty pleas Tuesday to assault with intent to do great bodily harm and felony malicious destruction of property after a March 25 fight with Jordan Latta, who had stopped his vehicle when Stevens wouldn’t let him get around him with his vehicle.
Branch County Prosecutor Zack Stempien offered Stevens a guaranteed sentence of three to 10 years for the assault and three to five years for breaking out windows of the Southern Michigan Bank and Trust offices at 48 West Chicago, causing $1,377 in damage. Both sentences will run concurrently.
Charges of resisting arrest were dismissed. Branch County District Judge Brent Weigle took the plea at the probable cause hearing Tuesday and set sentencing before Circuit Judge Bill O’Grady for May 12, 2025.
Police say as Latta was driving home from his job around 11:00 p.m., Stevens was in the westbound Chicago Street traffic lane west of Monroe Street. Video captured by a City of Coldwater camera showed Latta pulled around Stevens and parked. Both men could be seen fighting and then falling to the ground.
Latta drove off after the fight and Stevens was taken into custody by Coldwater police around 30 minutes later.
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