Colwell man gets mostly suspended sentence on forgeries, burglaries

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A Colwell man who was charged with 34 felony counts of forgery, three counts of burglarizing unoccupied vehicles and two counts of ongoing criminal activity has been sentenced to 90 days in jail and seven years of probation in a plea agreement.

Corey Patrick Byers, age 39, pleaded guilty to one count of ongoing criminal conduct, a Class B felony; four counts of forgery, each a Class D felony; and one count of third-degree burglary of a motor vehicle, an aggravated misdemeanor. All the other charges were dismissed.

He was sentenced Monday in Floyd County District Court by Judge DeDra Schroeder to up to 26 years incarceration, but all the prison sentences except for 90 days on the burglary charge were suspended.

He was also sentenced to almost $5,000 in fines and surcharges, but all of that was also suspended.

Byers was ordered to repay a total of $2,738 in restitution to the businesses where he wrote bad checks.

The most serious of the charges, the ongoing criminal activity B felony, resulted in a suspended sentence of up to 25 years in prison. All the other felony charges resulted in suspended sentences of up to 5 years in prison each.

Schroeder ordered 5 years of probation in each felony charge, all to be served concurrently.

She sentenced Byers to 365 days in jail on the burglary charge, then suspended all but 90 days of it, with credit for time served. She also sentenced him to two years of probation on the burglary charge, and ordered that it be served consecutively with the five years on the ongoing criminal conduct charge, making a total of seven years probation.

Byers’ address had been listed as Charles City in early court documents, but was listed as Colwell in more recent filings.

Byers was arrested in October 2019 by Charles City police and charged with three burglaries for entering unoccupied vehicles in various public locations in Charles City in September 2019 to steal checkbooks, which he then used to write dozens of checks at Charles City grocery stores, convenience stores, a restaurant and a discount store in September and October 2019, according to court records.