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UPDATED: Towell sentenced to 15 years in prison
Greene Superior Court Judge David Holt handed down a sentence of 15 years in prison to Jonathan Towell, a 22-year-old Linton man, during a sentencing hearing held Wednesday morning.
None of those 15 years were suspended and the sentence did not include any term of probation or work-release -- the time is to be served in the Indiana Department of Corrections (DOC).
On July 31, a 12-member jury found Towell guilty of conspiracy to commit dealing in methamphetamine, a class B felony, and possession of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, a class C felony. Because the second count may have been one of the overt acts the jury considered in finding Towell guilty of the first, the second count was merged into the first.
The possible sentence that a judge could have imposed on Towell on the B felony count was a minimum of six years up to 20 years maximum in prison.
In the sentence pronouncement, Holt wrote that he had taken notice of the evidence presented during the jury trial, a pre-sentence investigation report and the evidence presented at the sentencing hearing and found the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances.
The state was represented by Greene County Prosecutor Jarrod Holtsclaw and Towell was represented by attorney James J. Riester.
The mitigating circumstances included Towell's poor childhood and his father committing suicide; abuse suffered during his early years by his mother's boyfriends; and between 1995 and 2000, his admittance to psychiatric facilities and his being diagnosed with pyromania, psychosis, ADHD, polysubstance abuse, oppositional defiance disorder, intermittent explosive disorder and a socialized conduct disorder.
The aggravating circumstances included a history of criminal activity -- he has either been adjudicated a delinquent or convicted as an adult of: Resisting law enforcement as a juvenile in 2002; a class C felony burglary in 2005; a class C felony burglary in 2006; and he violated probation on one of those felonies.
Towell was on probation for two prior felonies when he committed the current crime.
In addition, at the time of the current crime, Towell knew that there was an outstanding warrant out for him in another criminal case -- he was evading law enforcement.
Towell was given credit for 106 days served in jail and was allowed good time credit for those days.
Towell's sentence also included a $100 fine and costs.
Nicole Schubla, a Linton woman who was arrested at the same time as Towell, also on methamphetamine-related drug charges, was sentenced in Greene Superior Court on Aug. 13 -- she will serve her time on work release.
Schubla was sentenced to the Indiana Women's Prison for seven years of confinement but three of those years were suspended and she was them committed to the Community Corrections Work Release Center for a term of four years. She was 18-years-old at the time of the arrests May 16.
Schubla received credit for 89 days, plus good time credit, served in the Greene County Jail. She was also ordered to pay a fine and comply with several rules and regulations of work release including completing alcohol and substance abuse assessments and programs, and parenting classes.
At the time of Towell's arrest, Linton police officers had been looking for him for over a month -- he was wanted on three warrants. On April 3 when they went to his residence to serve a warrant on him in connection with a revocation of his probation -- what they found led to unexpected other arrests also connected with the manufacture of methamphetamine at his home.
When officers arrived, they were told Towell was not at home. Officers said they believed he had been there but had gotten away by exiting through a back bedroom window. When others in the home gave consent to search, the officers were confronted with an overwhelming odor of ammonia, noticed a working security camera with audio/visual capabilities focusing on the front of the residence, and a glass smoking pipe. They obtained a search warrant for the residence and a garage which resulted in the finding of multiple pre-cursors used to manufacture methamphetamine.
Yet another warrant was then issued for Towell's arrest but he managed to elude police until May 16.
At that time, LPD investigators were in the process of investigating another methamphetamine operation at Schubla's residence -- when a controlled delivery was made with help from a confidential informant, Towell was there and so both Schubla and Towell were taken into custody.
Towell's three-day trial also made news when two persons were arrested for allegedly intimidating a state's witness during the evening hours of the first day.