ORR- Jeremy Morris, a former resident here, was sentenced Jan. 31 in a South Dakota federal courtroom to ten years in prison for possession of over ten pounds of methamphetamines with intent to distribute it.
Morris was stopped by law enforcement near Sturgis, S.D. on July 11, 2022, and found to be in possession of 4.985 kilograms of meth in his vehicle, along with a firearm. According to court documents, Morris admitted to the officers that he intended to distribute the meth.
Apparently free on bond after the stop, Morris was taken into custody by deputy federal marshals on Aug. 10 in Duluth.
At a formal detention hearing on Aug. 15 in a U.S. District Court in Minnesota, a pretrial report noted Morris’s past criminal history, stating that he was on “pretrial release for a first-degree sale of methamphetamine and possession of a firearm in St. Louis County,” that he had been convicted in June 2022 of aiding a burglary offender to avoid arrest, and that he had multiple failures to appear in court and had two probation revocations. Magistrate Judge Becky Thorson found “clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Morris presents a risk of danger to the community and … that he presents risk of non-appearance” in ruling Morris be detained without bond and transferred to South Dakota. Morris was held in the Sherburne County Jail until federal marshals could transport him to South Dakota, according to court documents.
Morris initially entered a plea of not guilty in South Dakota on Sept. 19 but changed it to guilty on Sept. 29 in a plea agreement that provided for a possible reduction in the level of his offense per U.S. sentencing guidelines. That agreement was accepted by the court on Oct. 14.
In addition to the minimum ten-year prison sentence, Morris must serve five years of supervised release and pay $100 to the Federal Criminal Victims Fund.