A South Jacksonville man is heading back to prison after he failed to reverse a lengthy prison through a vacated plea agreement.
32-year old Jordan Branch, formerly of the 1000 block of South Clay Avenue pleaded guilty to charge of manufacture and/or delivery of a controlled substance and withdrew his not guilty plea on a similar charge from 2022 on Friday in Morgan County Circuit Court.
While on pretrial release for the 2022 case, a criminal information was filed for two more charges of manufacture and/or delivery of a controlled substance containing cocaine by the Morgan County State’s Attorney’s Office.
On Sept 5, 2023, Branch pleaded guilty to a 2022 charge of manufacture and/or delivery of a controlled substance purportedly containing cocaine. He was initially sentenced to 6 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. On September 25, 2023, Branch filed a motion with the court vacating the plea agreement citing ineffective counsel saying he was misled into accepting the plea agreement by his attorney Monroe McWard.
McWard stayed Branch’s attorney until he was dismissed as private counsel on April 15th of this year and Public Defender Devin Vaughn was appointed. Vaughn was dismissed at a hearing in June and Monroe McWard returned as Branch’s counsel.
Motions by Branch and McWard to have a substitution of judge and revocation of a jury trial were filed on June 24th but ultimately found moot on Friday.
Branch pleaded guilty to counts of manufacture and/or delivery of a controlled substance and was sentenced to a total of 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, up to 1 year of mandatory supervised release, ordered a $500 county fine. Morgan County Judge Chris Reif also recommended that Branch be provided drug and mental health treatment during incarceration. He was given credit for 321 days served in the Morgan County Jail.