Two men believed to have participated in a scheme to produce meth in Williamsburg and Upper York County are heading to Circuit Court.
Williamsburg-James City County District Judge Colleen Killilea certified charges against 36-year-old Michael Anthony Barnette and 38-year-old Jonathan Rob Sladek to Circuit Court at a Friday hearing. She listened to more than an hour of testimony from Williamsburg Police Department Investigator Lang Craighill, who spelled out the steps taken during days of surveillance of the men.
Craighill testified that police eventually moved on the men, searching two hotel rooms and two cars Nov. 8. He said he searched a car used by Barnette and found several items: a bottle of drain opener, pieces of aluminum foil, an empty canister of camping fuel, an acid used to brighten and clean hard surfaces, a sliced-in-half plastic bottle with white residue and more — all of which are used to manufacture methamphetamine using what he referred to as the “shake n’ bake” method.
He made his discovery while executing search warrants Nov. 8 handed down after days of observing a ring of people believed to be manufacturing methamphetamine in Williamsburg and Upper York County. Along with Barnette and Sladek, police arrested 23-year-old Nathan Dudash on Nov. 8. Police arrested 27-year-old Nelson Haziel Lugo Gonzalez on Nov. 13.
Barnette and Sladek appeared in Williamsburg-James City County District Court on Friday for their preliminary hearings. Williamsburg-James City County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Gaten wanted to continue the hearings for a second time as test results of items confiscated during the execution of the warrants were still not back from the State Crime Lab in Richmond.
Judge Colleen Killilea said she was inclined to consider bond for Barnette because he has been held without it since his arrest. Gaten said he would rather move forward with the hearing despite the lack of results from the State Crime Lab as he believes Barnette would flee the area and not return for his next court hearing. The lab is supposed to test the confiscated items for evidence of contact with illegal drugs, but the lab has not had a chance to yet conduct the testing.
Testimony from Craighill suggested Barnette was producing methamphetamine while Sladek “smurfed,” which means to secure the ephedrine pills which are necessary to make meth. Police said in November Gonzalez is also believed to have been buying the pills. Dudash’s involvement in the alleged scheme remains unclear.
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Meth Slang:
Shake n’ Bake: This method of producing meth requires combining several ingredients in a bottle and then shaking it to produce a chemical reaction. Ingredients can include fuel, drain opener, ephedrine, acid and more.
Smurf: Smurfs are a group of people who work together to purchase ephedrine in small quantities to avoid detection, as sales of the drug are closely monitored. The production of meth requires the use of ephedrine.
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The men worked together at a timeshare community near the K-Mart in Upper York County. Police staked out parts of that community, a hotel on Bypass Road and the America’s Best Value Inn at the corner of Richmond and Ironbound roads to build their case. Craighill testified he stood near the woodline at the timeshare community at night two days before the search warrants were served. He said he saw several people in a unit being renovated, including one man who appeared to be shaking a bottle in a manner consistent with the “shake n’ bake” method.
Craighill testified he questioned Barnette during the search of the vehicle two days later. At that point, Craighill testified, Barnette said he had last made meth the same night Craighill observed the men in the timeshare unit. Craighill then said Barnette told him he had been the one observed making meth at the timeshare. He later testified Sladek told him Barnette had been asking everyone who worked at the job site to “smurf” for him.
At the America’s Best Value Inn, investigators found ephedrine pills and another meth ingredient, ammonium nitrate, which had been extracted from the freezable plastic blocks used to chill items inside picnic coolers.
Barnette’s attorney, Brandon Waltrip, asked Killilea to strike the charges, saying his client used several of the items found in the car to clean tiles and bathrooms at the timeshare community. He said a critical meth ingredient — lithium from lithium-ion batteries — was not discovered at either the hotel, Barnette’s car or a Chevy Tahoe police also searched.
Waltrip asked Killilea to not consider statements about what the items were used for as the State Crime Lab results were still not back. He then played a recording of Craighill’s questioning of Barnette at the car, but wind interference made much of the recording impossible to understand. Killilea said she thought she heard Barnette say on the recording that he was “only making [meth] and not trafficking or selling it.”
She then certified one count of conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance and one count of manufacturing a controlled substance to Circuit Court, where the matter will be tried. Barnette was not granted bond during Friday’s hearing.
Sladek faces the same two charges, both of which Killilea certified to Circuit Court. Craighill testified police found a “heroin rig” consisting of needles and a spoon with burned residue in a backpack belonging to Sladek in one of the hotel rooms. He testified he asked Sladek about ephedrine pills found in the room and that Sladek at first said he was using them because he was sick and then later said he was buying them for Barnette.
Leslie Simon-Tov, Sladek’s attorney, asked Craighill to produce logs from pharmacies showing Sladek had purchased the medication but he was unable to do so. She argued police were able to show Sladek was staying in a hotel room — not the same room as Barnette — and that no evidence of meth was found in the Tahoe Sladek was using.
Though Killilea decided to certify Sladek’s charges to Circuit Court, she did grant him $7,500 bond despite Gaten’s objections that Sladek represented a danger to the community and was a flight risk.
Dudash’s preliminary hearing will be at 8:30 a.m. March 13. Gonzalez will appear for his preliminary hearing at 9:30 a.m. May 8. Court dates for Barnette and Sladek in Circuit Court have not yet been set.
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