Mount Pleasant man in federal custody for domestic violence charges

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A Mount Pleasant man who faces several felony charges in Isabella County has been indicted by a federal grand jury.

Richard Samuel Chamberlain, 22, faces federal counts of home invasion, criminal possession of a firearm, domestic assault and interfering with communications. Combined, the federal charges alone constitute a maximum 37-year prison sentence, said Gina Balaya, public information officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chamberlain was issued the charges in federal court because he is an American Indian and the crimes were allegedly committed on the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe reservation.

Chamberlain has been convicted of several other state crimes, such as malicious destruction of property, possession of marijuana, retail fraud and resisting arrest. He was sentenced to two years in prison for destruction of property as well as 28 months in prison for the drug crimes in 2008.

In total, he served 14 months in state prison.

Isabella County Prosecutor Larry Burdick said Chamberlain’s federal charges will proceed on a separate timetable from his state charges.

“It’s a situation where the defendant has two cases pending in two different jurisdictions,” Burdick said. “It’s not that uncommon that we have folks that have been in the system on several occasions that come back into the system on new charges.”

The alleged victim in the domestic assault case is Chamberlain’s ex-girlfriend. Chamberlain was convicted of assaulting the same woman in 2009 when he dragged her across a parking lot into a car.

Both Chamberlain and the woman denied the assault took place, but Chamberlain was still arrested based on what witnesses attested.

Chamberlain is also the same suspect who was allegedly spotted on High and University streets Jan. 22, which resulted in a Central Michigan University crime alert being sent out to students.

“We sent out the crime alert to inform the entire campus community that an individual, reported to have a weapon and was a suspect in a felony that the city was investigating, was heading toward campus,” said CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley. “We thought that that posed as an immediate danger to our folks on campus and wanted to alert them to that.”

After his arrest, Chamberlain was held in the Isabella County Jail. He is now being held in custody by the U.S. Marshall.

“He appeared in federal court on (March 25),” Balaya said. “He was temporarily detained, and on yesterday the 28th he had a detention hearing.”