Judge sentences man for delivering heroin

COEUR d’ALENE — Delivering heroin while on probation is not a charge that lends itself to being placed on supervised release, a judge said Wednesday, and it erases the likelihood of a rider.

Judge Lansing Haynes sentenced Dustin A. McArthur, 31, to a minimum of four years and a maximum of seven years for one count of delivering heroin.

Haynes quashed a request by a public defender Wednesday in Coeur d’Alene First District Court to place McArthur on probation, and he ruled out a prison rehabilitation program despite McArthur’s promise to turn his life around and get clean.

When McArthur pleaded guilty in March to heroin delivery, an amended charge, the plea resulted in probation violations in four other cases. He was previously convicted on charges grand theft and three counts of burglary.

“In terms of a probation violation, this is a big one,” Haynes said. “This is a serious criminal offense and probation is just out of the cards.”

According to police, McArthur and a co-defendant Tiffany Meador traveled to Seattle at least once to pick up an ounce of heroin that was sold in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls.

The couple sold less than two grams to an Idaho State Police informant in February at the Fred Meyer parking lot, according to police, and made arrangements to sell the informant more heroin in the future.

Police said they followed Meador and McArthur, who was driving a 2002 black Chevy Malibu, Feb. 8, from the couple’s home in Post Falls to the Fred Meyer parking lot near Chili’s Bar and Grill. The couple allegedly sold two grams of heroin for $185 to the informant.

A week later, troopers stopped the same car and a police drug dog allegedly alerted on the Malibu, allowing police to search the vehicle. Police found less than a gram of heroin in a red purse in the car and syringes inside the car and trunk. Police said Meador admitted to hiding seven grams of heroin, which was recovered by police, in her vagina.

Prosecutors asked the court to send McArthur to prison because his latest offense was a danger to the public.

“When someone is selling drugs, selling heroin, or aiding and abetting in that,” Rebecca Perez, deputy prosecutor said, “Society is hurt.”

Deputy Public Defender Tyler Naftz asked the court to allow his client to get help for his addiction instead of sending him to prison.

But Haynes trumped both recommendations with the four-year fixed sentence.

“Society just expects something more to happen,” Haynes said.

Meador pleaded guilty to delivering heroin and possession of heroin with intent to deliver at an earlier hearing. She was sentenced to a rider, a short-term prison rehabilitation program that can last between three months to a year. If she successfully completes the program she will be placed on probation.