Jury convicts woman on meth charges

 A local woman was convicted of meth-related charges on Tuesday during a two day trial.

Theresa Porter of Crescent City was found guilty of maintaining a place for controlled substances, possessing a controlled substance and unlawful possession of paraphernalia.

She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 2  and faces up to four years and four months in jail, District Attorney Jon Alexander said.

“There’s no bigger malignancy in this county than crackhouses and what they do in our county,” said Alexander. “And one by one, we’re going to take every single one of them.”

Porter was arrested May 14 during a search conducted by the Sheriff’s Office Felony Investigations Unit of a residence off of Elk Valley Road where she was staying, Alexander said.

“The basis of the search warrant  predicated on a hand-to-hand (meth) sale out of that residence earlier that day,” said Alexander, adding that the house was known to be the location of ongoing drug deals as stated by the search warrant affidavit.

Porter wasn’t named in the warrant, but she was present during the search and admitted to making meth pipes and selling them to people that came to the house to purchase and use drugs, Alexander said.

While delivering his closing argument of the trial on Tuesday, Alexander raised from an evidence table several used and unused meth pipes, unused syringes, snort tubes and materials used to make meth pipes.

“We have a manufacturing scheme here plain and simple,” Alexander told the jurors. “She is enticing (drug use), encouraging it and facilitating it.”

Defense Attorney Leroy Davies argued that the bulk of the evidence gathered was found in a safe located in the room of Porter’s roommate and stated there wasn’t enough evidence presented to find Porter guilty.

“There’s no evidence this residence was continuously used” to sell and use drugs, said Davies, adding that Porter wasn’t the main caretaker of the trailer.

“He (Alexander) is trying to use public opinion to get you to have bias against my client,” said Davies.

The jury came back after about 50 minutes to find Porter guilty on all three counts she faced.

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