By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
A 28-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday in Jasper County Circuit Court and was sentenced to seven years in prison for operating a meth lab in a house near Webster Elementary School in Webb City.
Richard D. Shaffer pleaded guilty in a plea agreement with the Jasper County prosecutor’s office to a Class B felony offense of manufacturing a controlled substance within 2,000 feet of a school.
A Class B felony in Missouri carries a punishment range of five to 15 years in prison. Under the plea bargain, Shaffer’s sentence was limited to seven years, and Circuit Judge David Mouton accepted the plea agreement and imposed the sentence. The defendant waived his right to a sentencing-assessment report as part of the agreement.
Shaffer had been facing a Class A felony charge of manufacturing methamphetamine near a school. Class A felonies carry from 10 to 30 years, or up to life, in prison in Missouri.
The defendant was arrested on the charge Dec. 1 of last year when Jasper County sheriff’s deputies and Webb City police served a search warrant on a residence at 705 N. Tom St. Court documents indicate that Shaffer was one of the tenants of the residence, which is located about 500 feet from the school.
Officers found some trash bags and a duffel bag in the kitchen of the home that contained bottles of Heet, iodine, acetone and peroxide; plastic jugs containing bi-layered liquids; several thousand match books with their striker plates removed; coffee filters, glass flasks; and other items associated with a meth lab, according to a probable-cause affidavit.
The residence also exhibited a strong chemical odor associated with the manufacture of the drug, an officer said in the affidavit. The officer wrote that Shaffer claimed he was not the only one responsible for the meth lab in the house, but admitted he was “the cook.”
