The final suspects charged in connection with a mobile meth lab found in August 2015, have pleaded guilty.
Meisha Marie Becker, 30, and Scott Leroy Milton, 44, pleaded guilty this month in New Hanover County Superior Court to meth charges after a mobile lab was found inside a vehicle near a hotel in the 4900 block of Market Street on Aug. 18, 2015. Their co-defendant in the case, 42-year-old Christopher Loyd Holley, on Dec. 7, 2015 pleaded guilty to manufacturing methamphetamine.
Becker, Milton and Holley were arrested after Wilmington police stopped a Ford Explorer near the Market Street hotel. The vehicle was being driven in a reckless manner, according to Assistant District Attorney Timothy Severo.
The officer noticed an orange cylindrical tube in the vehicle that was an active “one-pot” meth lab, Severo said at the time of Holley’s plea. The mobile meth lab was a “bomb in the car separated by no less than an inch of plastic.” Had the lab exploded, the blast could have affected not only the car but the hotel as well, he added.
Three suspects inside the vehicle were arrested and the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation’s clandestine lab was called to the scene. Officers seized 22 grams of meth, drug paraphernalia and several items used for making methamphetamine.
“While we have sympathy for persons that use or are addicted to methamphetamine, the production of and transportation of the functional equivalent of a chemical bomb will not be tolerated,” Severo said.
Becker pleaded guilty Jan. 5 in New Hanover County Superior Court to charges of possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver methamphetamine and two counts of possessing or distributing a meth precursor, according to Samantha Dooies, assistant to District Attorney Ben David. She was sentenced to 25-49 months in the N.C. Department of Corrections, which was suspended, and ordered to serve 36 months of probation. She was ordered to pay more than $2,600 in court costs and fees.
Milton pleaded guilty Wednesday to possessing or distributing a meth precursor, Dooies said. He was sentenced to 33-49 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $700 in court costs.
