News Photo by Julie Riddle Hope Coenen sits in the jury box following her sentencing in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court on Monday.

ALPENA — A woman who wanted to get home to her kids could have found a way other than by selling methamphetamine, Judge Ed Black said in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court on Monday.

Hope Coenen, 24, told Black she is a user, not a dealer, but, when visiting Alpena earlier this year, made a drug sale to pay for repairs to her truck so she could see her children downstate.

“All I wanted to do was go home,” she told Black, saying she had not come to Alpena to sell drugs and noting that she had no previous felony convictions.

“It’s hard for me to fathom how you went from zero to 60 so quickly,” Black agreed, saying he hoped she could make the change for the better she promised him she wanted.

“Sometimes having difficult things happen helps you make that change,” he said, sentencing Coenen to two to 20 years in prison on a drug delivery charge.

Also in court on Monday:

∫ Syndie Chadwick, 26, admitted that in June, she and a male acquaintance drove to a casino north of Bay City to purchase fentanyl to sell in the Alpena area.

Alpena-area police found the drugs when they pulled the driver over for a traffic violation.

Chadwick agreed to the guilty plea after Black said he would likely sentence her to 19 months for a conspiracy-to-deliver charge.

∫ Attorneys agreed Alpena man Ian Lessard, 25, needs court oversight to monitor the mental health struggles he says led him to hold a gun during separate arguments in June and November.

Shortly after he pleaded guilty last month to discharging a gun in or near a building in June, police arrested Lessard after a second armed argument, according to police.

On Monday, Black sentenced Lessard to two years’ probation and four months in jail related to the June incident, with credit for 39 days served, cautioning Lessard to get the mental health help he claimed to need.

“I can guaran-damn-tee you, if you do anything else similar to what you have done while you are on probation, it will be at least a year in county jail,” Black told Lessard.

∫ Black sentenced Christopher Smith, 22, to 18 months to 20 years in prison after Smith admitted on Monday that he intended to sell the methamphetamine police found in his vehicle during a traffic stop last year.

Smith’s habitual offender status was dismissed for sentencing purposes as part of his plea agreement, but Black gave Smith no credit for time served because the defendant was on parole at the time of his arrest on the drug distribution charge.

∫ Black sentenced Teresa Kortman, 38, to 14 months to 10 years for a methamphetamine possession charge after she failed to show up for a sentencing hearing in October.

The judge denied a request by Kortman to be allowed to be with a sick family member at Christmas, noting her multiple prior convictions.

“I know that seems mean. But having to deal with harsh things will, hopefully, help change your stripes,” Black told her. “I hope you change, ma’am.”