A Marion County man was sentenced to ten years in prison Thursday for drug charges. 

Benjamin Curtis was sentenced to ten years in prison in Marion County District Court after pleading guilty to possession with intent to deliver less than five grams methamphetamine on December 21st, 2023. Curtis was on parole for a 2018 Burglary conviction at the time he committed this offense. In 2019 Curtis was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the 2018 Burglary and possession of Methamphetamine. He was paroled by the Department of Corrections in 2023.  

According to Marion County Attorney Jared Harmon, at sentencing, Curtis asked the Judge to run his 10-year sentence for the Meth Delivery charge concurrently with his prior sentence for the Burglary. The State resisted this request, and ultimately the Judge denied Curtis’ request for concurrent sentences and ordered the sentences to run consecutively. In situations such as this where a defendant has multiple sentences, the Judge has discretion as to have the sentences run concurrently, or consecutively according to Iowa code. The Judge ruled that the sentences should run consecutively citing protection of the community as one of his reasons for his ruling.