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CASSOPOLIS — A pair of relatives from Dowagiac were sentenced to prison Friday in Cass County Circuit Court.

Cousins Israel and Roberto Reyna were sentenced on drug charges. Israel Reyna, 30, of Dowagiac, pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine as a habitual offender and was sentenced to 15 months to 15 years in prison and $1,548 in fines and costs. He has credit for no time served as he is on parole from earlier convictions for maintaining a meth lab and conspiracy to deliver meth.

The incident occurred May 29 on North Front and Courtland Streets in Dowagiac when police and parole agents did a home visit. They found Reyna, his cousin Roberto Reyna and Michael Zech all in possession of meth. Zech was sentenced to 19 months to 15 years in prison in September.

Cass County Circuit Court Judge Mark Herman told both Israel and Roberto Reyna that they need to turn to their family for support before they get into trouble instead of apologizing to them afterwards. “Turn to them before you turn the other way,” he said.

“You now have five felony convictions and have spent eight years of your life incarcerated in jail or prison,” he said.

Roberto Reyna, 31, of Dowagiac, pleaded guilty to possession of meth and carrying a concealed weapon-both as a habitual offender and was sentenced to concurrent terms of one to 20 years and one to 10 years in prison. He has credit for 157 days served and must pay $1,616 in fines and costs.

He also pleaded guilty to violating his probation from an earlier possession of meth conviction and had his probation revoked. He was sentenced to 19 months to 20 years in prison with credit for 269 days already served. All the prison terms are concurrent.

The most recent incident occurred May 29 in Dowagiac. In addition to being found with drugs like his two co-defendants, he also had a gun.

“Your behavior has to change and you’ve been given multiple opportunities to change,” Judge Herman said. “Guns and drugs are a bad combination. Just two months after you were placed on probation, you committed this offense.”

“I know you’re not happy with what has been imposed, but the sentences are less than half of what was recommended by the probation department,” he added. “You will be out sooner than you think if you behave in prison. Make changes now or the next time you will be looking at a sentence at the top of the guidelines.”