by KENNETH FRY, Press Argus-Courier Editor Friday, January 26, 2007 1:53 PM CST
A Crawford County Circuit Court jury has convicted a Mountainburg man of possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to manufacture methamphetamine.
Billy Ray Shelton, 38, was sentenced to five years in the Arkansas Department of Correction by Judge Gary R. Cottrell on Wednesday after the jury returned with its recommendation. The trial began Tuesday.
Shelton will have to serve 70 percent of the prison sentence before he is eligible to parole.
According to Lanny Reese of the 12th Judicial District Drug Task Force, Shelton was arrested after he received information from a reliable confidential informant that Shelton had the materials to manufacture methamphetamine for sale.
Reese said he met Shelton in Mountainburg on Dec. 28, 2005, where he purchased for $100 items Shelton brought in a pickup truck and trailer. They included a microwave oven, matchbooks with striker plates, glassware, hoses, iodine, gloves, pseudoephedrine pills, denatured alcohol, camping fuel, coffee filters, stirring devices, fruit jars with liquids, digital scales and heating plate.
Shelton asked for some of the product that Reese would make out of the materials, the investigator stated.
Defense Attorney Joseph Self contended Shelton was a "pack rat" and the items were merchandise Shelton salvaged from remodeling jobs.
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Robert Presley said Shelton needed to be punished for the harm he is causing others by committing a serious crime.
"And, if it had not been for the outstanding work done by Lanny Reese," Presley said, "the crime would have been more serious."
On Monday, another jury convicted Lonnie Burl Christie, 75, of Alma of failure to register as a sex offender.
The jury recommended a three-year prison sentence, which Cottrell assessed Friday morning.
Christie was arrested April 13, 2006, accused of not reporting a change of address as required for a conviction of sexual abuse in the first degree.
