An Ossian woman has been sentenced in Wells Circuit Court to four years in prison, with two years suspended, on a charge of possession of methamphetamine, a Level 5 felony.
Shawnta M. Turner, 30, Ossian, also pleaded guilty to theft, a Class A misdemeanor.
On the felony chargedd, she was credited for 67 days spent in confinement awaiting disposition of her case. Those days are to be considered in assessing good conduct time credit.
On the misdemeanor charge, she was sentenced to 54 days in the Wells County Jail, but was credited for 27 days spent incarcerated awaiting disposition of her case. Again, the days are to be considered in assessing good conduct time credit, which means that the misdemeanor sentence is time served.
The terms of the sentences are to be served consecutively.
Upon release from incarceration, she is to serve two two years of probation.
She was assessed court costs and probation fees as well as ordered to pay restitution of $138.78 to Walmart Stores East.
The court recommended that Turner be evaluated for clinically appropriate substance abuse treatment program as determined by the Indiana Department of Correction. The court does not intend to consider a sentence modification and because of that did not recommend purposeful incarceration for Turner.
She was ordered to submit a DNA sample.
As part of a plea agreement, two counts of dealing in methamphetamine, both Level 3 felonies; three separate counts of possession of methamphetamine, all Level 5 felonies; one count of neglect of a dependent but committed in a location that is in violation of Indiana Code governing illegal substances, a Level 5 felony and two separate counts of theft, both Class A misdemeanors, were all dismissed.
On March 22, 2021, a sheriff’s deputy obtained a search warrant for Turner’s residence after another deputy performed a traffic stop on a vehicle seen leaving Turner’s residence at the Silo Farms mobile home park and reportedly discovered illegal substances in the vehicle. That deputy suspected there were several people residing at the mobile home who had active warrants for their arrest.
The female driver in the traffic stop reportedly admitted to the deputy that she had purchased alprazolam and heroin from Turner in Fort Wayne. The woman reportedly also told the deputy that she had seen Turner packaging methamphetamine at Turner’s Silo Farms residence and she was planning to receive more methamphetamine. The woman said that Turner planned to sell the methamphetamine. The woman also reported that there was Percocet and fentanyl, both prescription pain medications, in the mobile home.
The report to the court further noted that Turner also had an active warrant for her arrest out of Adams County for theft.
During the course of the search of the mobile home, numerous illegal substances and drug paraphernalia were reportedly found.
Then beginning Nov. 9, 2021, and continuing through Nov. 11, 2021, Turner reportedly “skip-scanned” merchandise on three separate occasions at the Bluffton Walmart Supercenter. Skip-scanning is when a person intentionally fails to scan items at a universal price code scanner in the self-checkout aisles at a store.
In this case, Turner reportedly skip-scanned bras, a phone case, Viva La Juicy perfume, a Bob’s Burger’s T-shirt, and several different food items including Fruit Loops cereal.
The value of the items skip-scanned was $138.78.
