News Photo by Julie Riddle John Gaddy waits to be sentenced at the Alpena County Courthouse on Tuesday.

ALPENA — Saginaw man John Gaddy will spend more than two years in prison for threatening an Alpena woman with a gun.

During a January bench trial — in which the judge takes the place of a jury — Judge Ed Black found Gaddy guilty of the assault that stemmed from a fake drug deal.

According to witness testimony at the trial, Gaddy and another man, Duran Lowe, both of Saginaw, drove to Alpena in August and sold rock salt — alleging it was methamphetamine — to two Alpena women.

The women, realizing they had been duped, gave chase to the men. The chase ultimately ended in an angry confrontation in an Alpena parking lot, during which Gaddy pointed a gun toward one woman’s face, the women testified.

On Tuesday, Black sentenced Gaddy to 30 months to 15 years in prison for the assault.

Despite Gaddy’s trial testimony to the contrary, Black said he didn’t believe Gaddy came north simply for a Sunday drive. Instead, Black said, Gaddy and Lowe knowingly came to Alpena to make what they thought would be easy money selling fake drugs to women addicted to methamphetamine.

“It turned out to not be as easy as everybody thought it was,” Black said.

Lowe pleaded guilty last year to a drug charge related to the incident.

Meanwhile, a young downstate man who attempted to pass a counterfeit prescription at an Alpena pharmacy won’t have to do more jail time and may yet be able to turn his life around, Black said in court on Tuesday.

Christian Johnson, 21, was one of three men arrested following a high-speed police chase down Chisholm Street in Alpena in October after police responded to a report of the fake prescription, presented by Johnson at McLean Pharmacy.

At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, defense attorney Rick Steiger asked for leniency for Johnson, who he said is hoping to finish his high school education and enter the medical field.

Johnson — who has already spent four months in the Alpena County Jail — said he wasn’t planning to come to Alpena on the day of the chase.

He may not have intended to come to Alpena, but he certainly intended to go into the pharmacy with a fake prescription, said Alpena County Prosecutor Cynthia Muszynski.

Black sentenced Johnson to time served. Because of new laws recently enacted by the state, Johnson will have a shot at having his record expunged of the crime, as long as Johnson can keep his nose clean, Black said.

“If you don’t, unfortunately, you won’t,” Black said.

The two other men involved in the October police chase, both from the Detroit area, appeared in court on Tuesday, as well.

Mickale Williams, alleged driver of the car that swerved down Chisholm at high speeds, nearly striking pedestrians, is contemplating a plea offer related to charges including reckless driving and fleeing from a police officer, according to attorney Michael Norman.

Joseph Marshall — a passenger who was tackled by an Alpena Police Department officer as he fled on foot through an Alpena neighborhood after the car crashed, according to police — has rejected one plea offer. A plea resolution is still a possibility, his attorney. Marshall is charged with possession of fake prescriptions and resisting arrest.