March 6, 2014
David Garman, 35, of Knox, IN was sentenced Thursday, March 6, in Marshall Superior Court 1 to 15 years imprisonment for manufacturing methamphetamine, a Class B felony. In open court, Garman admitted he manufactured methamphetamine in a room at the Super 8 Motel on Oak Drive in Plymouth. He was given a room at the Super 8 under another person’s name with the assistance of a night clerk, Kimberlie Frazier. Prosecutors charged Frazier with conspiracy to manufacture meth by assisting Garman in getting the room. She was previously sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.
Judge Robert O. Bowen approved an agreement reached between Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Nelson Chipman and defense attorney Douglas N. Hite, which provided for a sentence at the Indiana Department of Corrections of 15 years of imprisonment on the charge of manufacturing methamphetamine. Three years of the term of imprisonment was suspended. The sentence included a recommendation of intense drug rehabilitation treatment through purposeful incarceration, but only after serving six years of imprisonment, with good time credit.
The case began when the manager of the Super 8 Motel contacted Plymouth Police at 1:25 pm on September 2, 2013 reporting that a housekeeper began cleaning a room for the next guest and found what she believed to be parts of a methamphetamine lab. Plymouth Police Officer John Weir responded to the call and confirmed the presence of items related to the manufacture of methamphetamine. Also found were a few items of clothing and a cellular telephone.
Officers obtained a search warrant for the cellular phone and confirmed it belonged to David Garman. It also revealed numerous texts to and from various people discussing in street vernacular the subject of meth, its manufacture, the need for precursors and the availability of finished meth product.
The investigation led by Officer Weir revealed that Kimberlie Frazier was a new front desk employee of the motel and that she registered an individual into that particular room using the name of a frequent patron of the motel. The regular manager of the motel then replayed for Officer Weir the video security tape of the front desk at the time the individual checked in. Weir recognized the individual was David Garman, not the person whose name appeared on the registry. The regular manager also confirmed the person that checked in was not the frequent patron that rents a room as he travels through the area.
Chipman noted this is the third and final person convicted as a result of this incident of cooking methamphetamine at the Super 8 Motel. “We are confident that won’t happen again at that location.”