06/17/13 Brandie Tomblin, 29 years of age, of Bremen, was sentenced last week in Marshall Superior Court 1 to ten years imprisonment for manufacturing methamphetamine, a Class B felony. In open court, Tomblin admitted she manufactured methamphetamine in July of 2012 in her apartment located in the West Shore Apartments in Bremen.
Judge Robert O. Bowen approved an agreement reached between Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Nelson Chipman and defense attorney Tom Black, which provided for a sentence at the Indiana Department of Corrections of 10 years of imprisonment. No part of the sentence was suspended. In exchange for the plea of guilty to manufacturing methamphetamine, the State agreed to dismiss a count of possession of meth, maintaining a common nuisance and possession of paraphernalia.
The case began with a call to the Indiana State Police Post in Bremen in which a citizen reported that Brandie Tomblin and another individual were living in the West Shore Apartments and were involved with methamphetamine. Officers Jason Faulstich and Keith Bikowski went to the apartment and simply knocked on the door. An individual answered and the Officers were invited into the apartment where they were met by Ms. Tomblin. Immediately observed inside the apartment were two (2) gallon cans of solvent commonly used in the manufacturing of meth.
At Officer Bikowski’s request, Tomblin stepped out of the apartment and he told her of the drug complaint. Ms. Tomblin acknowledged the existence of “foilies,” which are remnants of aluminum foil previously used in the smoking of methamphetamine, but that they were in the dumpster outside. Officer Bikowski also asked her about her numerous recent purchases of pseudoephedrine at local drug stores. Tomblin said she was sick, but Bikowski emphasized that already by July of 2012 she had purchased psuedoephedrine thirteen times and because she was such a frequent purchaser she had been blocked from buying four times.
Officer Faulstich interacted with the other two individuals in the apartment and obtained admissions of drug use in the apartment. Neither occupant would consent to a more detailed search of the apartment so a search warrant was drafted and approved at 1:30 a.m. on July 28, 2012 by Judge Curtis Palmer of the Marshall Circuit Court. At about 3:00 a.m. on July 28 the execution of the search warrant revealed numerous items used in the manufacturing of methamphetamine.
Chipman noted that Ms. Tomblin had been given repeated chances since 2008 to end her involvement with methamphetamine after being arrested and prosecuted for maintaining a common nuisance, as well as numerous counts of purchasing over the legal limit of pseudoephedrine, the essential ingredient for the manufacturing of meth. Even a prior arrest for possession of methamphetamine and visiting a common nuisance had been dismissed pursuant to a plea agreement did not seem to create the incentive for Ms. Tomblin to confront her drug issue. “It is time,” Chipman stated, “for more drastic measures to be applied to this relatively young woman before her life is entirely doomed to addiction. Graduating into the ranks of a methamphetamine cook justifies the sentence handed down.”
Chipman added, “We commend the initiative of Troopers Faulstich and Bikowski in making the case beginning with a citizen’s call to the ISP Post. This is another example of citizen concern with their neighbors and neighborhood. This was not an in depth or elaborate investigation. Rather, it is what is called a ‘knock and talk’ where the officers went to the scene of the complaint and made a simple inquiry. One thing led to another and in compliance of the law, and within the constitutional rights of the accused, the officers did their job exemplary, and at least for the foreseeable future, another cook has been put out of business.”
