Third drug defendant remanded to district court

BESSEMER — An Ashland man was remanded to district court Tuesday, the third co-defendant to be remanded in a Gogebic County drug case.

Corey Allan Tutor, 34, was facing one 10-year felony count of possession of methamphetamine and a misdemeanor charge of disorderly person-loitering about an illegal business, however Gogebic County Prosecutor Nick Jacobs said the testing of evidence in the case didn’t bear out the initial charges.

Jacobs said he plans to file amended charges against Tutor, replacing the meth charge with one count of use of cocaine — a misdemeanor with a potential maximum sentence of one year in jail. The lesser charge allows the case to transfer from circuit to district court.

“The reason (the remanded co-defendants) got charged with such things as possession of meth was, essentially, because they were present,” Jacobs said. “The later investigation we had on the three of them … all established none of the three were actually in possession of meth — or, for that matter, other drugs. But they were given urine tests, which will substantiate … the charge of use of cocaine.”

Tutor, along with Carlos Jordan, 30, and Rebecca Jade Gibbons, 21, were three of the four co-defendants charged after the Gogebic-Iron Area Narcotics Team — along with Drug Enforcement and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents — searched a house in the 1300 block of Bessemer’s Lead Street around 6 a.m. on Jan. 20.

The search turned up what authorities allege is 340 grams of meth, 194 grams of cocaine and 27 grams of heroin, according to the federal criminal complaint against the owner of the house, Jeremy James Whitebird, 33.

After the search, a GIANT spokesperson estimated the street value of the drugs at more than $50,000.

Currency, firearms, marijuana and ammunition were also seized from the property.

Gibbons was remanded to Gogebic County District Court April 10 and Jordan was remanded March 21.

Whitebird faces federal charges in connection with the search.