Pot grower faces sentencing

SANDPOINT — A Kootenai man convicted of cultivating marijuana on conservancy land near Northside Elementary School is to set to be sentenced on Tuesday in 1st District Court.

Marcum Shelton Starks pleaded guilty to marijuana trafficking last year. He faces a two- to five-year prison term, according to the terms of a pretrial settlement agreement.

Starks, 43, and Laura Dell Baker, 52, were charged with trafficking after a Bonner County sheriff’s investigation revealed they were growing marijuana along the Pack River in 2010. Starks was allegedly captured on a surveillance camera installed by sheriff’s deputies.

The pot plants were growing on land managed by the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille Conservancy.

Baker entered an Alford plea to the trafficking charge last year, meaning she admits no wrongdoing but concedes the state could win a conviction if she went to trial.

She was given a one- to four-year prison term with credit for more than a year in jail, court records indicate. She was also fined $5,000 and placed on probation for three years.

Starks and Baker were originally charged with possessing more than 25 pounds of marijuana, although charges against both defendants were amended to possession of up to five pounds.