{"id":211741,"date":"2026-10-28T20:16:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T01:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=211741"},"modified":"2026-10-28T20:16:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T01:16:58","slug":"court-news-sentencing-hearings-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/10\/28\/court-news-sentencing-hearings-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Court news: sentencing hearings, more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent staff<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>14 criminal defendants appeared for an array of hearings in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court between Thursday, October 15, and Wednesday, October 28. Judge Martin D. Burchfield presided over each of the hearings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arraignment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Frank Alexander, Jr., 33, of Van Wert, entered a not guilty plea to two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, both third degree felonies. Bond was set at $50,000 cash or surety and he was ordered to have no contact with the victims. A pre-trial conference was scheduled for 8 a.m. November 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sentencing hearings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"284\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Courthouse-statue-5-2012-e1777507809539.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-24657\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Devin Couch, 21, of Van Wert, was sentenced as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>11-16 1\/2 years in prison with credit for 71 days already served for possession of cocaine, a first degree felony<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>8-12 years in prison with credit for 71 days already served for aggravated possession of drugs, a second degree felony.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>8-12 years prison with credit for 71 days already served for possession of hashish, a second degree felony.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>36 months in prison for possession of marijuana, a third degree felony.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ordered to pay court costs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In all, Couch will serve between 15 1\/2 and 20 years behind bars. A full story on the sentencing hearing can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/10\/20\/man-receives-lengthy-prison-sentence-in-drug-case\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dominique Barrows, 34, of Delphos, was sentenced to two years of community control, 30 days in jail at a later date and 50 hours of community service for attempted having weapons under disability, a fourth degree felony. He must maintain employment, undergo mental health and substance abuse assessment and any treatment, consume or possess no alcohol or drugs without a prescription, undergo random drug screens, and pay partial appointed counsel fees, monthly probation fees and court costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After a probation violation on a charge of failure to provide notice of change of address, a fourth degree felony, and a separate but identical third degree felony charge, Nicholas Tarbet, 31, of Van Wert, was sentenced to 180 days in jail with credit for 144 days already served. He was ordered to pay court costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Tyler Pessefall, 28, of Van Wert, was sentenced to two years of community control, 30 days in jail with credit for 30 days already served, 30 days in jail at a later date, and 26 hours of community service for assault, a first degree misdemeanor. He was ordered to undergo mental health and substance abuse assessment and any treatment, and was ordered to pay monthly probation fees and court costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Plea changes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kyle Jones, 39, of Delphos, changed his plea to guilty to an amended charge of attempted aggravated possession of drugs, a fifth degree felony. Judge Burchfield ordered a pre-sentence investigation and set sentencing for 3 p.m. November 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kendra Keesler, 31, of Van Wert, changed her plea to guilty of aggravated possession of drugs, a fifth degree felony. She requested and was granted intervention in lieu of conviction and her case was stayed pending completion of the treatment program. She was ordered to pay court costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anthony Oliver, 31, Van Wert, Mark Wilson, 64, of Van Wert, changed his plea to guilty to an amended charge of attempted aggravated possession of drugs, a first degree misdemeanor. Sentencing was set for 9 a.m. December 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Probation violation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brianna Saxton, 30, of Van Wert, admitted to violating her probation by failing to complete the WORTH Center. Sentencing was scheduled for 9 a.m. November 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bond violations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anthony Oliver, 31, of Van Wert, admitted to violating his bond by failing to appear and failing a drug screen. Bond was set at $10,000 cash or surety. At a later hearing, he changed his plea to guilty of aggravated menacing, a first degree misdemeanor. A misdemeanor report was ordered and sentencing was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. November 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drake Scheumann, 19, of Decatur, Indiana, admitted to violating his probation by committing a new offense. Judge Burchfield ordered a misdemeanor report and set sentencing for 9 a.m. November 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Time waivers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joseph Mohr, 50, of Van Wert, signed a time waiver in open court and requested additional time to prepare his case. A pre-trial conference was scheduled for 2 p.m. November 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ernie Teman, 52, of Van Wert, signed a time waiver in open court and requested additional time to prepare his case. A pre-trial conference was scheduled for 11 a.m. December 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blake Grenzebach, 22, of Van Wert, signed a time waiver in open court and requested additional time to prepare his case. A pre-trial conference was scheduled for 8 a.m. December 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent staff 14 criminal defendants appeared for an array of hearings in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court between Thursday, October 15, and Wednesday, October 28. Judge Martin D. Burchfield presided over each of the hearings. Arraignment Frank Alexander, Jr., 33, of Van Wert, entered a not guilty plea to two counts of unlawful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-11-05 02:22:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211741"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211744,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211741\/revisions\/211744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}