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NILES — A Dowagiac man is going to be spending more time in jail after being sentenced in Berrien County Court for assaulting his brother-in-law.

Jayson Dee Tash, 28, of Vineyard Place in Dowagiac, pleaded no contest to aggravated assault and was sentenced to 120 days in jail with credit for three days served and $125 in fines and costs.

The incident occurred Feb. 21 in Galien. Tash pleaded no contest because he doesn’t have a memory of the incident.

Defense attorney Scott Sanford said the assault was a continuation of a previous incident involving family members. He said Tash has just had a child and that event has had a profound impact on him. Sanford asked for a probation sentence.

“I’m full of remorse for the actions I took,” Tash told the judge. “I take full responsibility. If I hadn’t been intoxicated, I wouldn’t have reacted the way I did. … I need to be there for my wife and my son.”

“You should have thought about that before you got so drunk you can’t remember what happened,” Judge Schrock said.

“You have 10 felony and 16 misdemeanor convictions, those are reasonable grounds for the sentence I’m going to give,” the judge added. “On the risk assessment survey you filled out, you scored as a high risk on six and a probable risk on three more. You were honest, that’s a plus.”

“There are consequences for your behavior,” the judge said. ‘You need to think about them before you engage in that behavior.”