​Utica Man Convicted In Medical Marijuana Case Receives Probation

Utica resident Ryan Masters, 33, avoided a jail sentence after being convicted of operating an illegal marijuana dispensary. The conviction stems from activities at a Shelby Township storefront. Masters won’t serve time, but will have two years probation, and faced an especially harsh dressing-down by Judge Joseph Toia of Macomb County Circuit Court.

According to the Macomb Daily, Judge Toia of Macomb told Masters “Perhaps the worst thing is your mother died of a broken heart,” Toia told him, paraphrasing Masters’ father in making the comment.

Masters was convicted on the testimony of three other defendants in the case who pleaded guilty in exchange for reduced sentences and the dismissal of counts against them. Two of the defendants, both 25-year-old men from Utica, Andrew Zuhrab and David Pando, entered please under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, which allows convictions to be struck from public records.

Read full coverage of this story in the Macomb Daily.

Photo: Flickr Commons.