Dowagiac resident lands in jail after ‘crime tour’

Published 3:16 pm Friday, January 6, 2012

CASSOPOLIS — Arther Gibson is a frequent flyer in the criminal justice system, according to Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz, and he again landed in jail Friday.

The Dowagiac resident has served time in Iowa, Minnesota, Florida and the most recent stop in his “crime tour” was Cass County, Fitz said.

“He wears out his welcome and then goes and spoils other areas,” Fitz said.

Gibson was sentenced to 270 days in jail Friday in Cass County Circuit Court on a larceny in a building conviction.

Gibson, who has 19 entries on his prior criminal record, stole a motorcycle from a Vandalia home in November.

Defense attorney Dale Blunier argued that his client was looking for abandoned scrap metal.

But Judge Michael Dodge wasn’t buying it.

“You had to know what you were doing,” he told Gibson. “I can understand scrapping abandoned trash but you took a motorcycle from a garage.”