Sentencing dates have been set for two Grand Forks women who pleaded guilty to conspiring to make meth across the street from a middle school.
Kathy Joan Kielty, 56, will be sentenced by District Judge Lawrence Jahnke at 2:30 p.m. on July 16 for conspiracy to manufacture and drug paraphernalia possession charges.
Fifty-one-year old Tina Mae Metcalf’s sentencing will follow at 1:30 p.m. on July 23.
Kielty, Metcalf and co-defendant Audrey Marie Morris could be sentenced to life in prison without parole, a $20,000 fine or both on the felony charge of conspiracy to manufacture meth within 1,000 feet of a school.
Both Kielty and Metcalf have submitted plea agreements.
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Kielty’s agreement recommends she receive a 15-year sentence, of which she would serve five years with the remainder suspended if she doesn’t violate probation. A five-year sentence for her count of drug paraphernalia possession would be served at the same time.
Metcalf’s agreement is similar, recommending she serve three years of a 15-year sentence with the rest suspended if she does not violate probation. She also asks the charge be amended to a lesser felony carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a fine of $20,000 or both.
A sentencing date had not been set for Morris, who also is charged with two felonies - possession of meth and possession of drug paraphernalia. Both counts carry a maximum of five years in prison, a $5,000 fine or both.
A fourth woman, Ashley Marie Brown, 24, had already pleaded guilty to a meth possession charge and is set to be sentenced May 30.
A February search of Kielty’s home - a condo located across the street from Schroeder Middle School - turned up equipment and ingredients used to make meth, including 97 tablets of pseudoephedrine.
Narcotics taskforce agents had observed Metcalf and Brown purchasing pseudoephedrine at a Grand Forks pharmacy and followed them to Morris’ and Kielty’s residences, according to a police affidavit.
