Crystal Lake couple accused of possessing 80 pot plants, 12 pounds of weed plead to lesser charges

A Crystal Lake couple initially accused of illegally possessing about $25,000 worth of marijuana – including 80 plants and 12 pounds of dried cannabis, among other narcotics – pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

Johnathon C. Coulman, 44, pleaded guilty in June to unlawful possession of marijuana, a Class 1 felony. He was sentenced to 30 months’ probation and 120 days of periodic jail time and ordered to pay $11,040 in fines and fees, the order signed by Judge Tiffany Davis said.

Sarah Wise, 45, who lives with Coulman in his home where police said they found the marijuana plants and dried weed, as well as MDMA, psilocybin, tramadol and codeine, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of less than 15 grams of psilocybin, a Class 4 felony, according to the order signed by Davis.

Wise, who has no past criminal history, was sentenced to 30 hours of public service and 24 months of first-offender probation. If she successfully completes her probation, the conviction could be removed from her record.

According to defense motions filed in both cases, both were “lawful medical marijuana holders and, as such, entitled to each cultivate up to 5 marijuana plants.”

Though possessing and growing some marijuana is legal with the medical card, the amounts detectives said they found were beyond the legal limit. The legal marijuana possession limit in Illinois is 30 grams of cannabis flower at a time for recreational use. For medical use, registered patients or caregivers can only buy up to two and half ounces of weed within 14 days, the site said.

On Feb. 7, 2023, McHenry County Sheriff’s detectives searched Coulman’s home after receiving a tip that there was “a large indoor cannabis grow operation” there, a motion to invalidate the search warrant and suppress evidence said.

The tipster reported seeing a video of the operation on social media, the motion said. The tip prompted detectives to search the garbage outside Coulman’s home on Feb. 6, 2023. Detectives said they found “approximately one pound of cannabis leaf trimmings,” two black potting containers filled with dirt and roots and the stem from smaller marijuana plants and liquid fertilizer. A judge then granted a search warrant, the motion said.

In the motion, Wise’s attorney, George Kililis, challenged the validity of the search warrant. He said there had been earlier reports of a large grow operation at the home which were investigated and discredited, the motion said.

Kililis wrote that detectives “showed reckless disregard for the truth by failing to inform the Court that the video in question was a year old and, therefore, would have been unreliable under any circumstances for the purposes of issuance of a search warrant.”

Kililis also said detectives failed “to inform the Court that the McHenry County Sheriff’s Police was aware that Jonathan Coulman and Sarah Wise were cultivating medical marijuana plants at the residence,” the motion said. He also said that Wise had filed an order of protection against the tipster.

Prosecutors’ response said the detective did not deliberately provide false information or “show reckless regard” because he did not know the video was “over a year old.” The tipster told detectives the video had been posted three days prior. Prosecutors said it was “an innocent mistake.” Detectives also were not aware Coulman and Wise had medical marijuana cards, the state’s motion said.

The detective who filed for the search warrant “was aware of [Coulman’s] prior criminal history” and had done his own investigation. He also was aware of a 2017 search of Coulman’s home which resulted in charges of felony marijuana possession, the state’s motion said. In 2019, Coulman pleaded guilty to possessing less than 15 grams of amphetamine in connection with the 2017 search and was sentenced to probation, court records show.

The items found in the garbage corroborated the tipster’s statements, the motion said.

In exchange for the guilty pleas additional charges filed against the couple were dismissed including more serious charges of manufacturing and delivering more than 5,000 grams of marijuana, Class X felonies that carry a prison term of six to 30 years, records show.