Anthony D. Porter, Jr., 28, of Plymouth, was sentenced Thursday April 2, in Marshall Superior Court No. 1 to 12 years imprisonment for selling methamphetamine, a Class B felony. The transaction had nothing to do with the hospital, but took place in the St. Joseph Regional Medical Center parking lot and involved undercover officers conducting surveillance as well as use of a confidential informant. In open court, Porter admitted that on June 25, 2014, he possessed and sold a small quantity of methamphetamine to an individual for $50.
Judge Robert O. Bowen approved an agreement reached between Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tami Napier and defense attorney Tom A. Black, which provided for a 12 year sentence to the Indiana Department of Corrections, with 2 years suspended and followed by one year of reporting probation. As part of the plea agreement, a charge of Conspiracy to Manufacture Methamphetamine was dismissed.
Prosecuting Attorney Nelson Chipman emphasized the longer prison sentence was aggravated by the lengthy criminal history of Porter. Chipman also noted this was not some isolated incident with Porter as law enforcement has been focused on him for a while. Porter had purchased pseudoephedrine based products, an essential ingredient of methamphetamine, six times and was blocked three times in the space of six weeks between May 13, 2014 and July 29, 2014.
Chipman praised the efforts of the undercover officers who cannot be named at this time and noted that a prolific dealer was taken off the street. “During the buy, Porter actually solicited the informant for additional customers and bragged he had more ‘product’ to get rid of. No telling how many addicts Mr. Porter is responsible for, but it will be several years before he is able to resume that career.”
