Repeat Methamphetamine Dealer, Armed with Sawed-Off Shotgun, Sentenced to Over Five Years in Prison

Anchorage, Alaska – Acting U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced today that a Kenai man was sentenced in federal court in Anchorage for trafficking methamphetamine and possession of an illegal firearm while being a felon.

Richard Paul Morrison, 37, of Kenai, Alaska, was yesterday by Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess to serve 63 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonas Walker, Morrison was previously convicted of felony forgery in Oregon in 2000, and of a methamphetamine-related offense in Nebraska in 2004. In January 2016, a confidential informant bought methamphetamine from Morrison three times. Morrison was operating out of his garage in Kenai, where he kept a 12 gauge shotgun with its barrel sawed-off to be less than 18 inches long. Morrison admitted he kept it to protect the methamphetamine.

Morrison is also charged in state court with causing the death of a Soldotna man in December 2015 by unlawfully giving him methadone. The Kenai District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting Morrison regarding the methadone-related death. According to the plea agreement in the federal case, which was coordinated with the Kenai District Attorney’s Office, Morrison will plead guilty in the state case to criminally negligent homicide and receive a sentence of four years, which will be consecutive to his sentence in the federal case. According to Courtview, that case, 3KN-16-843CR, is scheduled for a change of plea hearing on Oct. 12, 2017.

Judge Burgess commented that Morrison committed a “very serious offense” and was a former drug dealer who “got back into it with a bang.” The court found that Morrison was “an absolute danger” to the community and that protecting the public was the most important sentencing factor.

This was a joint state and federal case. Morrison’s crimes were investigated by the Alaska State Troopers (AST), Alaska Bureau of Investigation and Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). The State of Alaska and the U.S. Attorney’s Office coordinated the joint prosecutions.

Acting U.S. Attorney Schroder thanks the Alaska Department of Public Safety and the Kenai District Attorney’s Office for their cooperation in this case.