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Methamphetamine
COUPLE CHARGED WITH COOKING METH IN CLERMONT WITH CHILDREN IN THE HOUSE
Michael DeLong and Cyrstal Morphew face multiple drug possession and drug dealing charged for allegedly operating a methamphetamine lab in Clermont next to that community's fire department headquarters. The lab was discovered when a police officer noticed smoke coming from the house and knocked on the door in order to alert the residents inside. Morphew told authorities that the fire was out. However, when they did a safety check of the house, they found the lab.
DeLong and Morphew were also charged with neglect of a dependent because three children, ages 7, 6 and 1, were living in the house.
A third defendant, Randy Ferris, was also arrested and charged. He allegedly was at the house to buy methamphetamine.
METH MAKER RECEIVES PRISON TIME
A Corydon, Ind., man who tried to cook up an order of methamphetamine to go in a department store parking lot is spending the next eight years in prison. Gary Wynn, 38, received the sentence after pleading guilty to one count of manufacture of methamphetamine.
On July 11, 2004, Wynn purchased several boxes of Sudafed from the Target store at 4850 E. Southport Rd. The store's outdoor security cameras caught Wynn mixing the Sudafed and other precursors for methamphetamine in his car. Wynn had a makeshift methamphetamine lab in his trunk.
INCREASED PENALTIES FOR MAKING METH
In the 2002 session of the Indiana General Assembly, Prosecutor Brizzi testified in favor of a bill that increased the penalties for the manufacture and possession of methamphetamine.
The bill, which became law July 1, 2002, makes a person who possesses more than 10 grams of methamphetamine subject to a D felony, with a possible prison term of six months to three years. If the possession involves a firearm, or is within 1,000 feet of a school, public park, family housing complex or youth program center, the charge because a C felony, punishable by two to eight years in prison.
Anyone who sells or provides a substance used to make methamphetamine to a person, knowing that the person will use it to make the drug, commits a D felony. A person may also be charged with possession of one precursor with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine.
The bill also created a new crime, "Taking a Child or an Endangered Adult to a Drug Nuisance."
FRONT-LINE HELP
Prosecutor Brizzi sent a letter to Indianapolis-area pharmacies, enlisting the help of workers to notify law enforcement agencies to suspicious sales of ingredients used to make methamphetamine.
ADULTS CHARGED WITH NEGLECT IN METH LAB BUSTS
For the first time ever in Marion County, two sets of adults faced neglect of a dependent charges resulting from busts of methamphetamine labs they operated.
Michael Smith is spending the next 10 years in prison and Michelle Munns received a five-year sentence for their guilty pleas to conspiracy to charges of conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine and neglect of a dependent. They operated a meth lab out of their house at 1930 N. Parker. In the home was their nine-month-old son, Ronald. Smith and Munns operated the lab in the basement of the house, next to the furnace. The boys crib was located near a vent. The lab was also within 1,000 feet of Indianapolis Public School #81.
Prosecutor Brizzi also filed multiple drug-related charges against Danny and Tanya Potts, who allegedly operated a meth lab out of their home at 4810 Hyperion Ct. Their son, Joseph, 12, was present at the time. The Indiana State Police called the Potts' lab the second biggest operation they had ever seen, in terms of sophistication, the amount of equipment present and the amount of drug being made. Danny Potts subsequently died in an accident. Tanya Potts pled guilty to one count of neglect of a dependent and received a two-year prison sentence.
METHAMPHETAMINE PROSECUTOR
Prosecutor Brizzi has appointed veteran drug prosecutor Larry Brodeur as the person who tries cases related to the manfucature and sale of methamphetamine in Marion County.
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