NILES – A double jeopardy question is at the heart of a ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court this week in the case of a Mishawaka young man who attacked a Michigan State Police trooper in 2017.

Michael Scott Barber, now 23, was convicted by a Berrien County Trial Court jury in 2017 of six counts including assault by strangulation, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and resisting and obstructing police causing injury as habitual offender.

He was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for the two assault counts, five to seven and a half years for receiving, concealing and possession of stolen property, as well as for third degree fleeing police and two to three years for attempting to disarm a police officer. He received a consecutive prison sentence of four to six years for resisting and obstructing police causing injury.

Barber’s convictions stemmed from a Feb. 20, 2017, incident began when Trooper Garry Guild attempted to pull Barber over on the U.S. 31 freeway between Buchanan and Berrien Springs on what turned out to be a stolen motorcycle.

Barber ended up crashing the bike and then started attacking Guild. He was helped by his half-brother Trevor Wise, who got out of a car trailing them and started choking Guild. Guild was assisted by two Good Samaritans, Jerry Burnham, of Berrien Springs, and Keith Pepple of Plainwell, who helped him regain control of the situation before other police arrived.

This week, the Michigan Supreme Court stated that Court of Appeals last year failed to address Barber’s argument that the legislature did not intend for a single act to result in convictions for both assault by strangulation and assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder.

The Court of Appeals stated that Barber had not raised the issue at trial and thus had failed to preserve his right to appeal that issue. They further stated that the two offenses contained different elements and thus did not constitute double jeopardy.

The Supreme Court cited the 2015 Miller case which involved a man convicted of both operating while impaired and operating while impaired causing injury. The court stated that convicting the man of both charges violated the multiple punishments prong of the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The court in the Miller case noted that the legislature did not intend to allow for multiple convictions and punishments for multiple offenses arising from the same conduct except when explicitly authorized. It further noted that a concurrent sentence does not necessarily eliminate collateral consequences for being convicted of two charges from the same offense.

In the order this week regarding the Barber case, the Supreme Court otherwise upheld the 2018 Court of Appeals ruling. That ruling upheld Barber’s convictions and the sentences imposed by Berrien County Trial Judge Angela Pasula which exceeded sentencing guidelines. Barber’s request for a new trial was denied.