Two Worthington men sentenced in unrelated cases

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WORTHINGTON — Two Worthington men were sentenced this week in Nobles County District Court in unrelated cases.

Marlon James Sands, 24, was sentenced to 61 months in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree burglary on Tuesday.

Sands, who was convicted of burglary in an unrelated case in August, will serve the two sentences concurrently.

Sands and several others allegedly entered a garage in Adrian in 2008 with the specific purpose of breaking into a safe. When they could not get the safe open, the men decided to steal the safe. Then they stole a van to transport the safe.

His sentencing in December came from a jury conviction. Sands had allegedly broken into a house and stolen a cell phone. During that trial, he walked away from the courtroom before the verdict could be delivered and was picked up several months later in another county.

According to the sentencing order, Sands will serve at least 40 months of the sentence in prison, and 20 months on supervised release. The commission of corrections may extend the time to the entire sentence if Sands commits any disciplinary offenses or supervised release violations.

In an unrelated case, a 19-year-old Worthington man was sentenced Monday to a stay of 12 months, on the condition he serve 180 days in the Nobles County Jail.

Abeydew Girga Demesse will be given credit for the 96 days he has already spent in jail.

Demesse was convicted robbery and assault in January after allegedly mugging a man who was riding a bicycle in Worthington.

The sentencing order states Demesse had a criminal history score of zero at the time of the pre-sentence investigation.

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