NILES — The co-defendants charged with embezzling thousands of dollars from the Southeast Berrien County Landfill faced a judge to be sentenced for their crimes Monday morning in Berrien County Trial Court.

Terry Eldon Snow, 54, of Eau Claire, and Clyde “Sonny” David Fuller III, 47, of Buchanan, were charged with embezzlement of $100,000 or more. Both Snow and Fuller worked for the landfill, Fuller as a general manager and Snow as a maintenance worker and mechanic. They both pleaded guilty to the charges on March 28.

Snow was first to be sentenced Monday morning. Judge Charles LaSata ordered Snow to 20 to 240 months in a Michigan state prison. Snow has credit for three days served.

The charges stem from an investigation which began last year and revealed that about $249,000 had been embezzled from the municipality-owned landfill between December 2016 and June 2017.

The Southeast Berrien County landfill first became aware of the issue in the spring of 2017 when finance board member Herschel Hoese began questioning some payments that the landfill made to a company called GT&S. Hoese testified in January during an exam hearing that he had not heard of the company and that they appeared to be paying two companies, GT&S and Klink Trucking, to fulfill the same services for hauling. To get more answers, Hoese went to the county clerk’s office, where he found record that GT&S was named after Snow’s mother, Goldie Snow.

The Berrien County Sheriff’s Department was alerted to the situation and began investigating. What they found, according to earlier court testimony, was that the payments from the landfill to GT&S Enterprises coincided with transfers to bank accounts owned by Snow and Fuller.

Berrien County Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jennifer Smith read a victim’s impact statement from the Southeast Berrien County Landfill that requested the full amount of restitution and attorney fees be paid. The statement also emphasized the impact of the crime. 

“The activity of Mr. Fuller and Mr. Snow has had a dramatic negative impact on the landfill and those whom the landfill serves, causing frustration, grief and stress to members and employees alike,” Smith read.

The statement continued on to say that this crime had “tarnished the trust” that the company had earned from the community. They asked that Fuller and Snow receive the maximum punishment for the crime.

“This was a serious blow to the landfill and the community the landfill supports,” Smith said. “This was not one incident, but several incidents that were planned and carried out. They created a company for the sole purpose of doing that.”

She recommended that the Snow serve a minimum of 20 months in prison, per the sentencing agreement.

Snow was represented in court by defense attorney William Weise, who insinuated that Snow was not the instigator of this crime.

“The co-defendant [Clyde David Fuller III] was a supervisor and Mr. Snow was the mechanic,” Weise said. “Mr. Snow indicated that he had felt some duress or some pressure with the respect to being approached with this idea [by] his director employer that had control of his $70,000 a year job.”

When given the chance to speak, Snow apologized.

“I would just like to apologize for my having doing this,” Snow said. “I look forward to paying my debt to society and coming back out and being a part of society again.”

LaSata said this case was one of the larger embezzlement cases he had handled in his time as a judge. He reminded Snow and Fuller, who was present in the courtroom, that their crime involved thousands of victims who pay to use the landfill’s services. 

“The residents put a certain level of trust in you and your colleagues, and you breached that and not just a little bit,” LaSata said.

Snow allocated $25,900 Monday to begin to pay back the landfill. His truck, a 2012 Dodge Ram pickup truck, was also forfeited to the victim.  A United Federal Credit Union account for about $66,000 was also ordered to be transferred to the victim, LaSata said.

Fuller was also scheduled for sentencing Monday morning, but the judge agreed to adjourn his sentence, so that he could continue to try and sell property he owns for restitution. Fuller had agreed to sell two of his houses and put the money toward restitution. Fuller will serve time in a county jail until his sentence date, which was set at 30 days from Monday. Court officials said it would be easier for him to carry out the transaction process from jail as opposed to prison.

“The landfill deserves to have this [sale] taken care of as quickly as possible, so that the pressure is on Mr. Fuller to show the court that he is going to get this done before he gets sentenced,” Smith said.