05/31/13 Arthur David Lawrence Jr., 30, of Plymouth was sentenced Thursday in Marshall Superior Court No. 1 to 12 years imprisonment for conspiracy to deal in methamphetamine. In open court, Lawrence admitted that on August 13, 2012, within 1000 feet of the Argos Town Park, he agreed with Robert Bowen II to sell methamphetamine, and in furtherance of their agreement Robert Bowen delivered methamphetamine to an undercover officer and a confidential informant.
Judge Robert O. Bowen approved an agreement reached between Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Nelson Chipman and defense attorney Edward Ruiz, which provided for a sentence at the Indiana Department of Corrections of 12 years of imprisonment. No part of the sentence was suspended.
The case began when an undercover officer with the Marshall County Undercover Narcotics Investigation Team was contacted by an informant who said that Arthur Lawrence and Robert Bowen II were cooking right at that moment methamphetamine at a house on Broadway St. in Argos. The informant dialed Art Lawrence’s cellular telephone number, but the phone was answered by Robert Bowen. A discussion took place with Bowen who wanted pseudoephedrine, not cash, in exchange for one gram of methamphetamine. Lawrence then got on the telephone and advised the informant that it would be another forty minutes before the meth would be dry and usable. Lawrence told the undercover officer that he would call when the meth product was complete.
Later in the evening of August 13 the undercover officer went to the Broadway St. address and met with Robert Bowen who exchanged a small baggie of meth for $100 in documented bills.
A search warrant was later executed on the Broadway St. address on September 17, 2012. Approximately 84 one-pot discarded labs were located at the address, along with methamphetamine product and precursors, including coffee filters, lithium battery strips, ammonium nitrate, sulfuric acid and Coleman camping fuel. Robert Bowen and another individual were arrested at that time.
On September 19, 2012, Bowen during an interview admitted he had participated in the manufacturing of methamphetamine over one hundred times in the previous months, and that Arthur Lawrence frequented his residence and did in fact manufacture methamphetamine at that location.
Bowen was previously sentenced to a term of 15 years of imprisonment at the Department of Corrections with no time suspended.
