18 years in prison for Gilberts man for Ecstasy delivery while on bail
A Gilberts man who was charged with receiving a package from the Netherlands containing Ecstasy while he was free on bail in two other felony cases has pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Nicholas P. Bennett, 21, of the 300 block of Jackson Court, had faced a minimum of 23 years in prison if found guilty of the most severe charges from arrests in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Under state law, consecutive sentences are mandatory for a defendant convicted of committing a felony while free on bail.
Last week, Bennett pleaded guilty to the least severe charge from an August 2018 arrest after officials from the U.S. Postal Service and Department of Homeland Security intercepted a package from overseas containing 53 Ecstasy pills.
Authorities allowed Bennett, who was free on bail from arrests in 2016 and 2017, to accept the package before arresting him.
Kane County Judge David Kliment sentenced Bennett to 18 years prison for his guilty plea to manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance in exchange for prosecutors dismissing the more severe charge of controlled substance trafficking, which carried a punishment of 12 to 60 years in prison, according to court records.
Bennett can have his prison term cut in half for good behavior, and he gets credit for 267 days served at the jail, where he was held on $500,000 bail after his August arrest.
Under the plea, he also must pay $1,420 in court fees and a $2,075 drug fine, records show.
Police initially arrested Bennett in December 2016 on a charge he possessed 200 to 600 "doses" of LSD, a felony that carried a prison term of nine to 40 years without the chance of probation.
He also faced other felony marijuana charges in the December 2016 arrest and was free after posting 10 percent of $45,000 bail when he was arrested in October 2017 on two counts of forgery, a felony punishable by two to five years in prison, court records show.
Bennett, records show, was released on his own recognizance on the forgery charges.