02/20/14 Forty-one year old homeless Alexander Pranger, was sentenced Wednesday (February 19, 2014) in Marshall Superior Court 1 to fifteen years imprisonment for attempted manufacture of methamphetamine, a Class B felony. In open court, Pranger admitted he was in the process of manufacturing methamphetamine in a Garden Courts apartment in downtown Plymouth on October 11, 2013.
Judge Robert O. Bowen approved an agreement reached between Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Nelson Chipman and defense attorney Marc A. Morrison, which provided for a sentence at the Indiana Department of Corrections of 15 years of imprisonment on the charge of attempted manufacture of methamphetamine. No part of the term of imprisonment was suspended.
The case began when Plymouth Police received a report from a relative of a resident in Garden Court Downtown that a man by the name of “Alex” was in her apartment making methamphetamine. Sgt. Ray West, and Officers Robert DeLee and Derek Workman responded to the building on W. Garro St. and met the resident at the front door. She gave permission to the officers to enter the apartment and gave them her keys.
Upon entering the apartment the officers smelled a chemical odor consistent with a methamphetamine lab. The bathroom door was locked and Officer Workman knocked. A male subject answered and stated he was in the shower. Officer Workman knocked twice more and got the same answer. The officers were concerned evidence was being disposed down the toilet so Officer Workman kicked in the door. Standing there wearing only a t-shirt and nothing else was Alexander Pranger.
Also present in the bathroom was a bottle of Coleman fuel and several plastic bags hanging on the wall, known to meth cooks and law enforcement as “crasher bags.” Also present was white powder in a bottle later determined to be crushed pseudoephedrine tablets and white granules later determined to be ammonium nitrate from cold packs. All of these ingredients are necessary for the manufacture of methamphetamine, and since it was in the middle of a family housing complex, prosecutors filed the case as a Class A felony. Plea negotiations resulted in a reduction of the charge to a Class B felony and dismissal of the habitual offender count.
Pranger’s previous record includes a conviction of manufacturing meth in 2005 and a jury conviction of possessing chemical reagents with intent to manufacture methamphetamine in June of 2012. Chipman noted, “It appears the only time Mr. Pranger is not cooking meth is when he is in jail or prison. In the last case we had with Mr. Pranger he was homeless, he walks around doing this stuff. To protect ourselves we have to send him away for a substantial time period. What a wasted life.”
