Mears man sent to prison for violating probation

William Buchanan with his attorney, David Glancy.

By Allison Scarbrough. OCP Editor.

HART — A 29-year-old Mears man was sentenced to 18 months to five years in prison in 51st Circuit Court Tuesday, Dec. 15, for violating his probation on a 2013 conviction of unlawful driving away of automobile (UDAA).

William Craig Buchanan II, of 7736 W. Fox Rd., qualifies for special alternative incarceration (SAI) or “boot camp,” and Judge Susan K. Sniegowski said she would not object to the prison placing him in the  program.

Buchanan was sentenced last month in Oceana County’s 27th Circuit Court to serve four months up front of a one-year discretionary jail term, with credit for 63 days served, for a conviction of malicious destruction of turf/trees/shrubs $1,000-$20,000. He testified that he intentionally drove over small cherry trees growing in a field last summer. One count of UDAA was dismissed in a plea agreement when he pleaded guilty to the malicious destruction charge.

Buchanan received credit for 269 days served in the Mason County Jail.