Federal Grand Jury Indicts Four Defendants on Drug Charges
Anchorage, Alaska – United States Attorney Karen Loeffler announced today, January 23, 2012, that Floyd Everett Harshman, Mystiek Lockery, Nathanael Harshman and Jonathan Butterfield, residents of Fairbanks, were indicted by a federal grand jury on January 20, 2012, in Anchorage on charges of conspiracy, manufacturing marijuana, and related firearms offenses.
The six-count indictment charges Floyd Everett Harshman, 53, Mystiek Lockery, 46, Nathanael Harshman, 19, and Jonathan Butterfield, 22, with manufacturing marijuana and conspiring to do so. It also charges both Harshmans with using and possessing firearms in connection with that operation, and the elder Harshman with possessing a firearm while having five previous felony convictions.
According to the indictment, the defendants conducted an operation in Fairbanks involving two separate marijuana grows, each consisting of 100 or more marijuana plants. The offenses are alleged to have occurred between August 12, 2011, and January 12, 2012.
Assistant United States Attorney Stephen Cooper, who prepared the case for presentation to the grand jury, indicated that for the conspiracy and drug charges the law provides for a maximum total sentence of life in prison and a fine of $8 million for Floyd Everett Harshman, with a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison, and for the remaining defendants a maximum of 40 years in prison and fines of $5,000,000, with a minimum mandatory sentence of 5 years in prison. Both Harshmans also face maximum sentences of life in prison for the firearms offenses, with minimum mandatory sentences of 15 years for Floyd Everett Harshman and 5 years for Nathanael Harshman.
United States Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, branches of the Department of Justice, in conjunction with the Alaska Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit, conducted the investigation leading to the indictment in this case.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
