A man was sentenced in Marshall Superior Court 1 on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty in a plea agreement with the state on a charge of manufacturing methamphetamine while traveling in a vehicle.
Gary Beatty, 27, admitted in court that on Sept. 17, 2013 he was manufacturing methamphetamine in his vehicle. A concerned citizen notified police of suspicious activity inside the vehicle and a traffic stop was initiated after a Marshall County deputy found that the license plate number returned to a different vehicle and it was expired. Beatty could not supply the officer with a valid registration and current insurance. As a result, the vehicle was impounded.
An inventory of the vehicle uncovered an active one pot methamphetamine lab and numerous items associated with the manufacturing of meth. Police also found an item that appeared to be a stick of dynamite. The South Bend Bomb Squad was called to investigate and it was determined that the device was made to appear to look like dynamite.
Judge Robert O. Bowen accepted the plea agreement reached between the defense and the state and Beatty was sentenced per the terms of that agreement. He was given a ten year sentence in the Indiana Department of Corrections with no part of the sentence suspended. Judge Bowen ordered Beatty to take part in intensive drug rehabilitation as part of the purposeful incarceration program.
