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Bryan Carroll with his attorney, David Glancy.
Defendant tells judge getting busted for meth saved his life.
#MasonCountyCrime
By Allison Scarbrough. Editor.
LUDINGTON — A 34-year-old Ludington man was sentenced to six to 40 years in prison for his role in a meth lab operation Tuesday, Jan. 2, in 51st Circuit Court.
“Catching this case saved my life,” said Bryan Jacob Carroll, of 506 Melendy St. “I would be dead today if I didn’t.”
Carroll told Judge Susan K. Sniegowski that he has a drug problem and that he needs to be punished for his crime.
“I am in front of you today because of my drug addiction,” Carroll said.
During the first few months of his drug addiction, Carroll said he was functioning and able to continue working.
However, his addiction led him nearly to death after overdosing twice. One overdose was intentional, he said.
“I need to be punished for what I did. I feel I can be productive to society some day when I’m better.
“I’ve been in here (jail) eight months, and I still have urges every day. The drug addiction is powerful and it’s an epidemic.”
Carroll said he hopes to use his past negative experiences “and turn them into a positive.”
Carroll has previous convictions of uttering and publishing in 2007; fleeing a police officer in 2010; fleeing a police officer in 2014; and assaulting/resisting/obstructing police in 2013.
He told Sneigowski that his drug addiction led to the previous crimes.
Carroll pleaded “no contest” to possession of meth lab components and guilty to third-offense habitual offender, Nov. 28.
Charges of operating/maintaining a meth lab; ephedrine – purchase/possess to make meth; and using a computer to commit a crime were dismissed.
He was on parole at the time of his most recent offense, and any parole sanctions he receives will run consecutively to his sentence, said Mason County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola.
Carroll was in possession of “a number of components to manufacture methamphetamine,” the prosecutor said, citing a “shopping list” of ingredients.
The judge said Carroll “walked away from treatment” by leaving a substance abuse program.
“I agree you need treatment, but you need to invest in yourself,” she said. “Heroin seems to be more your drug of choice.”
“I hope you take advantage of the substance abuse treatment program available at the Michigan Department of Corrections,” she said.
Carroll received no jail credit for the months he has been incarcerated in the Mason County Jail, because of he was on parole.
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