Prison time for drug defendants

Two Iron County Circuit Court defendants will spend a considerable amount of time behind bars for their involvement in an UPSET drug bust in Iron River in May.

Joseph Baclich
Joseph Baclich

Joseph Baclich was given a sentence of one and a half to 20 years in prison for delivering less than 50 grams of heroin.

The 31-year-old Iron River native was also sentenced to one to two years in jail for three counts of non-narcotic controlled substance possession.

Baclich was charged as a second-offense habitual offender, but he made an agreement with the prosecutor to receive the maximum sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to all five counts.

Both sentences will run concurrently, and Baclich will be given credit for 1 day in jail.

Rhonda Nichols
Rhonda Nichols

Another defendant in the case, 31-year-old Rhonda Nichols of Caspian, was sentenced to two to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of delivery and manufacture of a controlled substance.

Nichols’s sentence was increased following a scoring review by the Michigan Department of Corrections.

The DOC took note of her habitual offender status and determined that her third felony conviction should carry more weight at sentencing.

Nichols will be given credit for 12 days served in jail.