Accused meth cook convicted

SANDPOINT — A Bonner County jury has convicted a Priest River man of operating a clandestine methamphetamine lab.

The jury deliberated for about four hours before finding Robert Dale Coleman guilty of trafficking the drug by manufacture. Coleman, 54, is scheduled to be sentenced in 1st District Court in November.

The verdict was reached on Sept. 17, following a three-day trial.

Coleman was one of three suspects arrested in connection with a sheriff narcotics unit's raid in June 2007. The lab was discovered in a shed in the 600 block of Lincoln Avenue in Priest River, outside a residence Colemon David Hamilton was living in, according to court records.

Also snared in the bust was Randy Morgan Carson, 39. Carson was cited for frequenting a place where drugs were present and Hamilton, 50, was charged with trafficking via attempted manufacture.

At the time of the lab's takedown, Carson was awaiting trial on a previous manufacturing charge. Court documents indicate he took a plea deal which dismissed the new charge in exchange for admitting guilt on the prior charge. He also pleaded to a count of grand theft by possession of stolen property, a Chevrolet Tahoe sport utility vehicle.

Hamilton was ordered last year to serve two concurrent two- to four-year prison sentences.

The raid turned up ingredients and various tools used to make the addictive stimulant, court documents alleged. Several grams of finished and packaged product were found in the shed and a coffee filter containing meth was located in the center console of the pickup Coleman had been driving.

Coleman has long maintained he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had no part of the drug lab. He took the stand on the second and third days of his trial and reiterated those claims, saying he was at Hamilton's to fix his truck.

But Deputy Prosecutor Louis Marshall put up video evidence purporting to show Coleman buying meth ingredients at Wal-Mart and presented receipts memorializing the purchases, records show.

Coleman denied he was depicted in the video footage and Chief Public Defender Isabella Robertson called Coleman's doctor, who testified that had been suffering from allergic rhinitis and other nasal conditions typically treated with pseudoephedrine, a key component of meth.

Coleman also testified others, including Hamilton, had used the pickup truck before the bust went down, court records indicate.

Jurors, however, did not buy Coleman's defense.