Photo: Thomas Bruce Wheeler
A man who has been caught with illegal drugs in a number of places — including while locked up in jail – was given five years in prison during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
As 53-year-old Thomas Bruce Wheeler of Mountain Home was accepting his plea on drug-related charges in two cases opened on him this year, he frequently commented on elements of the cases.
At one point, Wheeler complained about the strength of the dope that was injected into his neck by another inmate when he was a prisoner in the jail in late June.
He admitted he had allowed his cellmate “to inject something in me, but it wasn’t very good stuff. I didn’t get a buzz off it.”
In the “shot-in-the-neck” case, Wheeler was charged with furnishing prohibited articles and possession of drug paraphernalia.
As Circuit Judge Gordon Webb was reading the details of his charges in both cases, Wheeler began to quibble with being accused of possession of methamphetamine.
He said, “I admit I had a dirty meth pipe, but I didn’t have no bag of dope or anything.”
At that point, the plea almost derailed. Prosecutor David Ethredge said, “There is no mention of a bag of dope in the affidavit filed in this case. There was meth in the pipe.”
Wheeler’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Mark Cooper, said if his client wanted to press the point, the plea could be withdrawn and Wheeler could go to trial.
Wheeler balked at the trial idea, “I would be a fool to take this to trial,” he told the court.
In the case involving the possession of meth charge, Wheeler admitted he had “unfortunately accepted an invitation” to come to the office of his probation and parole officer in mid-February.
The officer spotted Wheeler near the building housing the Arkansas Community Corrections’ Mountain Home office.
He told Wheeler they needed to meet because he had missed a scheduled session the month before.
When Wheeler was patted down after entering the building, he was found to have a smoking pipe containing a substance field testing positive for methamphetamine.
Wheeler was arrested and taken to jail.
As Judge Webb was reading out the fines, fees and costs that would be assessed against Wheeler, he asked the judge if they could be dismissed.
Judge Webb said no. Wheeler then asked him for a loan to pay them.
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