Downing man sentenced to five years in prison for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
ON FEBRUARY 5TH of this year local law enforcement officers executed a search warrant on this home at 126 Main Street in Downing. They found drug paraphernalia, stolen items, seven firearms that were in possession of a convicted felon, who last week was sentenced to five years in prison.
– photo by Shawn DeWitt
By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A 38-year-old man who had been living in Downing and charged with felony counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm has been sentenced to five years in prison and five years of extended supervision.
Brandon J. Hermanson, along with his attorney, Jonathan Lundeen, appeared in Dunn County Circuit Court for a plea and sentencing hearing before Judge Luke M. Wagner October 8.
All together, Hermanson was charged with seven felony counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and one felony count of receiving stolen property worth between $2,500 and $5,000 as well as two misdemeanor counts of receiving or concealing stolen property worth less than $2,500 and one misdemeanor count of possessing drug paraphernalia.
Each of the 11 counts carries a modifier of being a repeat offender.
Judge James Peterson set a cash bail of $25,000 for Hermanson on February 19, although the bond was not signed because Hermanson was in Wood County at the time, according to online court records.
Hermanson pleaded guilty to two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and pleaded no contest to one felony count of receiving stolen property worth between $2,500 and $5,000 and no contest to one misdemeanor count of receiving or concealing stolen property worth less than $2,500.
Judge Wagner accepted Hermanson’s pleas, found him guilty on the four counts, dismissed the remaining seven counts and sentenced Hermanson to five years of initial confinement in the Wisconsin state prison system and five years of extended supervision.
Judge Wagner also ordered Hermanson to pay $2,117 in court costs, to serve nine months in jail concurrent to any other cases and granted 231 days of credit for time served.
A restitution hearing is scheduled in Dunn County Circuit Court on November 18 at 10:30 a.m.
According to online court records, Hermanson’s current address is the Dodge Correctional Institute in Waupun. His address was updated August 17. Prior to that, Hermanson was living at a Main Street address in Downing.
Stolen UTV
According to the criminal complaint, an investigator with the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department was contacted by the Chippewa County Sheriff’s Department on February 2 of this year about a stolen John Deere Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV) out of Wood County. The UTV was recovered in Chippewa County on January 30.
A Dunn County investigator drove past 126 Main Street in Downing on February 2. While there were three vehicles parked in the driveway, the investigator could only see one license plate, which was registered in Wisconsin.
The vehicle was registered to an individual who worked in Glenwood City. When the investigator talked to the man, he told the investigator he had sold the UTV and explained that his “friend” from Wisconsin Rapids was going through a divorce and did not want to lose the UTV. The friend was later identified as Brandon Hermanson. The man said he had posted the UTV for sale.
When the investigator asked where Hermanson was located, the man said Hermanson had moved into his residence at 126 Main Street in Downing about two weeks earlier and that he had met Hermanson in prison. The man said that he, Hermanson and a woman with whom he believed Hermanson had a relationship were the only three people living at his residence.
History
When the Dunn County investigator spoke to a Wood County investigator, the Wood County investigator said Hermanson had a history of drug use, thefts and burglaries and that he was a person of interest in several other thefts and burglaries.
The Dunn County investigator also learned that Hermanson was a person of interest/suspect in a firearms incident that took place in Sun Prairie.
On the afternoon of February 5, several Dunn County investigators and deputies, along with K9 Rip, investigators from Chippewa County and the Chippewa Falls Police Department, a sergeant from the St Croix County Sheriff’s Department and Boyceville Police Chief Greg Lamkin, executed a search warrant at 126 Main Street in Downing, according to the criminal complaint.
No one was home at the time.
In a first-floor bedroom, law enforcement officers located a glass pipe which had been used to smoke methamphetamine, a small bag of a crystal substance believed to be methamphetamine (which later field tested positive for methamphetamine) and a total of seven firearms (.270 WIN Savage Axis; Ruger 10/22 with Bushnell scope; 16 GA shotgun; .223 Savage Axis; 30-06 Springfield Remington; Zbrojovka rifle; 62×39 Norinco Rifle).
The officers also discovered three firearm cases, a MarCum sonar fish finder used for ice fishing with the initials “LGH” written in permanent pen, several license plates (which turned out not to be stolen), miscellaneous tools and a key fob belonging to a 2010 white Ford F-150 that contained the initials “DP.”
In the living room, law enforcement officers discovered between the couch cushions the owner’s manual and a Wisconsin license plate which belonged to a stolen vehicle from Wood County.
In the basement, law enforcement officers found two CLAM ice augers, three STIHL chainsaws, additional drug paraphernalia and miscellaneous tools and power tools, according to the complaint.
On February 7, a teletype was sent out to numerous counties informing them of Hermanson’s Department of Corrections warrant and for officer safety concerns.
On February 11, the Dunn County investigator was informed that Hermanson had been taken into custody in Wisconsin Rapids. The investigator also learned that the truck stolen from Wood County was recovered at a location in Minnesota.
Stolen goods
Investigators drafted a notification of the items located at 126 Main Street and were contacted by investigators from Polk County who said they believed some of the items had been taken during a burglary in Polk County.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Department had responded to a burglary that was no longer in progress on February 1. Victim#4 said he had heard a knock on the door, two people, a man and a woman, said they were lost and their cell phone had died. They asked to use a cell phone charger and to use the bathroom, according to the complaint.
Victim#4 was pepper-sprayed, pushed to the ground, tied up and his residence was burglarized. The man and the woman left in a dark-colored SUV. Ice augers, a sonar ice fish finder and firearms were taken during the incident.
Polk County investigators believed some of the property recovered at 126 Main Street in Downing was related to the burglary in Polk County, the complaint states.
