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Meth offender gets 14-year prison sentence
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THOMAS

 

One of three people charged in a September meth case was sentenced to a 14-year prison sentence last week in DeKalb County Criminal Court.

 

Brandon Keith Thomas, 29, pled guilty to initiation of a process to manufacture methamphetamine and two violations of probation before Judge Gary McKenzie last Tuesday, and was given an eight-year sentence to serve on the meth charge, set to run concurrently with an eight-year sentence for one of the probation violations, but to run consecutively with a six-year sentence for the other probation violation, totaling a 14-year sentence. He was given credit for 136 in jail.

 

Thomas and 40-year-old Shawn Renee Gibson of McMinnville were charged with initiation of a process to manufacture methamphetamine in the case, while Thomas' mother, Sharon Renee Thomas, 54, Smithville was charged with promotion of the manufacture of meth.

 

District Attorney Bryant Dunaway told the Review after the verdict that his office will be concentrating on acquiring convictions for drug offenses in the district. "We are working hard to make a focused effort to prosecute drug dealers in our counties," he said. "We will especially pursue those who are manufacturing."

 

Thomas’ case began on Sept. 20 of last year, when a deputy received a tip of a possible meth lab at a residence on Sparta Highway. Sheriff Patrick Ray said that the deputy found the back door open, and observed Brandon Thomas inside shaking a bottle. The officer could allegedly see Gibson sitting on a bed in the room watching the process.

 

The officer reportedly watched for several minutes until the door was closed.

 

He then knocked on the door and heard a male say "It's the cops." The door was opened in time for the deputy to see Brandon run out the front door. The sheriff said the lawman ordered Thomas to stop, but he reportedly had to be chased down and apprehended on the front lawn of the home.

 

The sheriff said Thomas then admitted that everything in the house was his, and belonged to no one else. Consent to search was reportedly given by Thomas to search his room, where the deputy found Drano, cold packs, Coleman fuel, muriatic acid, tubing, coffee filters, an electric grinder, empty Claritin D blister packs, a plastic bottle containing muriatic acid, pliers, wire cutters, and digital scales.

 

He again told the deputy that all the items belonged to him, and that he was manufacturing methamphetamine. He reportedly showed the officer a one-pot cook bottle, and explained where he was in the process. Thomas was charged with initiation of a process to manufacture methamphetamine.

 

Gibson was taken to the jail and questioned, and she reportedly told authorities that she knew that meth was being cooked, and said that she did participate by shaking the bottle. She was also written citations for simple possession and drug paraphernalia. Ray said the deputy found two Valium tablets, hypodermic needles and a half-ounce of marijuana in her possession.

 

Sharon Thomas was charged with promotion of methamphetamine after being questioned at the sheriff’s department and allegedly admitting to buying pseudoephedrine on three different occasions for her son to manufacture methamphetamine.

 

Gibson and Sharon Thomas’ cases are still pending.