A U.S. District judge in Cape Girardeau yesterday sentenced two Kennett men to prison on drug charges.
48 year old Anthony D. Emery pleaded guilty in December to one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and one count of possession of firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He admitted possessing methamphetamine that he intended to sell to others and a loaded firearm to protect the meth.
Officers with the Kennett Police Department conducted a court-approved search of Emery’s home on May 3, 2022, after establishing probable cause that he was selling meth there. Officers found five bags of meth with a combined weight of nearly one kilogram, $4,398 in cash, digital scales for weighing drugs for sale and a loaded Smith & Wesson .38 Special Revolver.
Emery was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Also Monday, 27 year old Roderick Omar Wheeler Jr., who was caught with methamphetamine and other drugs just weeks after his release from prison, was sentenced to 12 ½ more years in prison.
Wheeler was arrested last May when officers with the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force and the Kennett Police Department conducted a court-approved search of a home in Kennett after hearing that a drug supplier had a pound of meth there. During the search, crystal methamphetamine; synthetic marijuana (K2), ecstasy, fentanyl and three digital scales were found. Wheeler also had $1,520 in cash that had been used earlier by the task force to buy meth.
Wheeler was sentenced to 78 months in prison in 2016 on gun and drug charges after being caught after a police chase with a pistol and marijuana, the sentencing memo says. He was released in 2021 but later sentenced to 14 more months in prison after violating the conditions of his supervised release. In 2014, Wheeler was found by police in a vehicle with a brick of marijuana underneath the seat. Wheeler had one ounce of meth concealed in his underwear that was discovered while he was being booked into jail.