Joshua Alan Blythe Sentenced In U.S. District Court

The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Missoula, on July 12, 2013, before U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen, JOSHUA ALAN BLYTHE, a 27-year-old resident of Butte, was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 50 months

Special Assessment: $100

Supervised Release: 3 years

BLYTHE was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Racicot, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

In early August 2011, law enforcement officers in Butte received information about a large quantity of prescription medication located at a local residence. The landlords of the residence evicted the tenants, including BLYTHE, and later found a white, five-gallon bucket and a small lunch cooler that were filled with various pills, and a metal box containing smaller boxes with a white, powdery substance.

The bucket of pills had "Stericycle," a bar code, and an SKU number on it. Stericycle is a medical waste disposal company in Butte. An investigating officer interviewed the manager of Stericycle, who said he was not aware of that particular bucket. The manager also confirmed that BLYTHE had been employed by Stericycle in the past, but had been terminated.

On August 16, 2011, agents interviewed BLYTHE about the bucket of pills found at his former residence. BLYTHE reported receiving the bucket from Wayne Partin and buying drugs from Partin for approximately three years, including oxycontin, hydrocodone, morphine, and methamphetamine. BLYTHE said that Partin had stolen the drugs from Stericycle and he described helping Partin move several containers of prescription pills from one residence to another in approximately July 2011. BLYTHE did not admit to helping Partin sell any of the pills in and around Butte.

Later on August 16, 2011, officers from Probation and Parole in Silver Bow County, along with the case agents, conducted a probation search of Partin's residence in Butte. During the search, officers seized a significant quantity of pills (controlled and non-controlled substances), Stericycle storage containers, sharps containers, needles, forceps, other medical waste, handwritten notes that appear to describe and identify pills, books used to identify pills, and a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion a6000 computer. A forensic examiner analyzed the computer and determined that between January 2010 and August 2011, Partin used the computer to conduct searches aimed at identifying various pills and prescription medication.

Law enforcement officers conducted several additional interviews after searching Partin's residence and at least two people told investigators that BLYTHE was helping Partin sell some of the pills that Partin had stolen from Stericycle.

Partin pled guilty to federal charges and has been sentenced.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that BLYTHE will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, BLYTHE does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - Homeland Security Investigations and the Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement Agency.