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Meth lab operator gets five years in prison
YOUNGSTOWN
A 44-year-old Beloit man has been sentenced to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to operating a Goshen Township methamphetamine lab.
Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence Monday on Bryan K. Dilling.
Dilling pleaded guilty as charged in June to illegal manufacture of drugs, illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for the manufacture of drugs and drug possession.
After receiving an anonymous tip that Dilling had meth-making materials in a trailer in which he was staying, police knocked on the trailer door in February 2015 and said they saw the materials in plain view.
Jennifer Paris, an assistant county prosecutor, recommended a five-year prison term.
Dilling will be on post-release control for three years after he leaves prison.
Judge D’Apolito overruled Dilling’s request to withdraw his guilty plea.
Dilling made his plea withdrawal request on the grounds that his lawyer, Edward Hartwig, had not adequately represented him.
However, the judge said Hartwig adequately represented Dilling and that Dilling fully understood the charges he was pleading guilty to.
“Your lawyer negotiated, fought for you and finally got the state to go along with what you asked for” in the plea deal, the judge observed.
Paris has recommended probation sentences for two co-defendants, who agreed to testify against Dilling had he gone on trial.
One of them, Angela L. Firestone, 32, of Akron, has pleaded guilty to illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for the manufacture of drugs and drug possession.
The other, Andrew K. Bourgoujian, 45, of Beloit, has pleaded guilty to the illegal assembly or possession charge, drug possession and assault on a Goshen Township police officer.
Judge D’Apolito will sentence them at 10 a.m. Wednesday.