ESCANABA — An Escanaba man has been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for drug charges related to an incident that sent another man to jail.

James Joseph Johnson, of Escanaba, and Ronald David Frans, of Gladstone, were recently sentenced in Delta County Circuit Court following drug charges related to an incident that occurred in April of 2024.

On April 30, around 5:20 a.m., Frans and Johnson were pulled over for a traffic stop in Rapid River. The vehicle belonged to Frans, but Johnson was driving.

As they were pulling over, Frans threw a bag out of the window from the passenger side.

“They had thrown something out the window that turned out to be a large quantity of cocaine,” said Delta County Prosecutor Lauren Wickman.

Frans was arrested and pled guilty in October of 2024 to one count of possession of 25 to 49 grams of cocaine related to the traffic stop.

He was sentenced to two days in jail, with credit for the two days already served, beginning in February 2024. Frans was also ordered to pay $908 in fines and fees and placed on probation for 12 months.

After the traffic stop, Wickman said authorities attempted to conduct a few interviews before acquiring a search warrant regarding Johnson.

“There had been some information that they previously had related to Northtown Crown, and so they put that information together with the information they got from the traffic stop and did a search warrant, ultimately, at the Northtown Crown,” Wickman said.

From there, the Delta County Sheriff’s Office and the Michigan State Police (MSP) executed the search warrant at roughly 7 a.m. on April 30, 2024.

“He was residing in one of the apartments above it, I believe, or in the same building at the very least,” Wickman said.

“He worked there in some capacity; quite honestly, I’m not sure what capacity he worked there, but I know for sure he lived in an apartment that was behind and above the bar itself.”

The search warrant found small amounts of cocaine and methamphetamines in Johnson’s residence.

Johnson was sentenced on Monday, pleading guilty to one count of creation/delivery of analogs. The charge stems from the traffic stop. For that charge, Johnson was sentenced to 38 months to 15 years in prison with credit for 217 days already served.

In a separate filing, Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a controlled substance – less than 25 grams. The charge stems from the search warrant at Johnson’s residence.

For that charge, he was sentenced to 217 days in jail, with credit for the 217 days already served.

The sentences are to run concurrently.

Between the two charges, Johnson was also ordered to pay $456 in fines and fees.

Wickman later explained the difference between Frans and Johnson’s sentences, saying Frans acted more as a participant and had a less extensive criminal history than Johnson.

“His (Frans) criminal history was significantly less than Mr. Johnson’s,” Wickman said.

“Our investigation indicated that he (Johnson) was more of the leader involved, whereas Mr. Frans was a participant but not as actively or as not as significantly.””