Hayden man accused of growing pot

COEUR d’ALENE — A 61-year-old man who lives with his mother in Hayden, where he is accused of growing pot, made an appearance while partially dressed and seated in a wheelchair in First District Court Thursday to face drug manufacturing charges.

Cringing and talking through his teeth, Daniel Lewis Byrd, 61, sat without a shirt while impatiently explaining that the firearm deputies found at his residence was “a hunting rifle,” and that he lives on disability payments, not by selling marijuana, as deputy prosecuting attorney Corey Skriletz alleged.

His attorney asked the court to lower Byrd’s bond from the $40,000 bond amount recommended by the state. The defendant is clearly in a lot of pain, is on disability, lives with his mother and has been here for 20 years, the attorney said.

First District Magistrate Anna Eckhardt set the bond at $20,000, and Byrd’s mother, Julia, made arrangements with a bondsmen to get her son released from the Kootenai County Jail.

“There seems to be a large discrepancy in what you perceive the facts to be, compared to what is in the police report,” Eckhardt said.

Byrd was arrested after the owner of a vacant 5-acre lot on the 9800 block of N. Valley Way reported several marijuana plants growing on his land.

Deputies set up surveillance cameras, and noticed a foot path leading to the Byrd residence. Deputies reported the plants were tended.

Byrd told police he had given one plant away.

Officers from the violent crimes task force arrested Byrd Wednesday on a warrant based on the surveillance footage, and a witness report.

Officers recovered almost 3 ounces of marijuana in various stages of drying in Byrd’s room, in an outbuilding and three plants drying on a wood pile behind the Byrd’s residence, according to a report.

Julia Byrd said she had not been aware her son was growing marijuana. She said Byrd had three slipped discs, necrosis in his hands and that he recently suffered a heart attack and was on disability.

Byrd will appear in Magistrate Court for a probable cause hearing within 14 days.