A methamphetamine addict who came to Williamsburg for a contracting job was sentenced Wednesday for manufacturing the drug in 2013.
Michael Anthony Barnette, 38, will serve three years and one month of a 20-year sentence after admitting to cooking methamphetamine in the rooms he was hired to renovate in Williamsburg.
He said he was being supplied the items with which to cook the drug — including Ephedrine, the main ingredient in meth — by others with whom he would then share the drug.
He was arrested in November 2013 along with 40-year-old Jonathan Rob Sladek and 23-year-old Nathan Lewis Dudash after a drug task force conducted an investigation and discovered meth-related items in the men’s hotel rooms and vehicles.
Investigators found Ephedrine pills, ammonium nitrate and a small amount of meth in several rooms of the hotel, as well as 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 in a car used by Barnette, according to an investigator’s testimony during a preliminary hearing for Barnette and Sladek.
Nelson Haziel Lugo Gonzales, 27, was also believed to have been involved with procuring Ephedrine. Charges against him were later dropped.
Ohio resident Stacia Lynn Williams, the fifth person believed to have been involved in helping to manufacture the drug, pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy as an accommodation to the distribution of a schedule II substance.
Williams received a 10-year jail sentence with all but three months suspended in December.
Sladek was sentenced to three months in prison, and a charge against Dudash was dropped in October.
Barnette told Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court Judge Michael McGinty he was not selling the drug in Williamsburg; he would allow the others to take from the batches he was making in exchange for them providing ingredients and supplies.
When asked by Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Gaten how much he had been using, Barnette replied, “Whenever I could get my hands on it.”
Brandon Waltrip, Barnette’s attorney, asked his client be ordered to complete substance abuse treatment as part of his sentence.
“A lot of the time when you are an addict, you have to get that pressure to get it done,” Waltrip said.
Barnette was also convicted of manufacturing meth in Florida and spent six years in prison for that charge.
“I’m done with this crap,” Barnette said Wednesday, adding he wanted help for his addiction. “It’s not a game anymore.”
Related Coverage:
- Man Gets 10 Years For Involvement in Williamsburg Meth Ring
- Fifth Member of Williamsburg Meth Ring Pleads Guilty
- Two Charges Dropped Against Man Involved in Meth Ring
- Minimal Evidence, Suspect’s Cooperation Leads to Dropped Charge in Meth Ring Case
- Member of Alleged Meth Ring Pleads Guilty to Manufacturing Drug in Williamsburg Hotel
- Alleged Fifth Member of Meth Ring Extradited to Williamsburg
- Alleged Meth Cook, ‘Smurf’ to Be Tried in Circuit Court
- Police Nab Fourth Man in Williamsburg Meth Ring
- Three Men Arrested at Williamsburg Hotel on Meth-Related Charges
