laurens man pleads guilty to making meth
Contact: Peter Deegan
A man who conspired to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine pled guilty on February 3, 2011, in federal court in Sioux City.
Earl Alexander Stone, age 33, from Laurens and Cherokee, Iowa, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine within 1000 feet of a school and to distribute and possess pseudoephedrine with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine having previously been convicted of at least one felony drug offense.
In a plea agreement, Stone admitted that, between February 1, 2009, and March 23, 2010, he and others manufactured and distributed methamphetamine and distributed and possessed pseudoephedrine with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine. On April 10, 2009, officers executed a search warrant at Stone’s residence in Laurens and seized items used to manufacture methamphetamine. Stone’s residence was within 1000 feet of the Laurens-Marathon Elementary School.
Stone has a prior felony drug conviction from 1998 in Clark County, Nevada.
Sentencing before United States District Court Judge Donald E. O’Brien will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Stone remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Stone faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, an $8,000,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and 10 years of supervised release following any imprisonment.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kevin C. Fletcher and was investigated by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, Pocahontas County Sheriff’s Office, Clay County Sheriff’s Office, Storm Lake Police Department, Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR10-4085.
