1 of 3 arrested in Jan. raid in Grovertown sentenced to prison
Starke County judge gives Chester King 13 years for dealing, making meth
KNOX – One of three people arrested in January after police said they seized numerous guns and an assortment of drugs from a Grovertown home has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison.
Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall sentenced Chester T. King, 38, to 13 years in prison on Wednesday, aug. 21, in a pair of unrelated, methamphetamine-connected cases.
as part of a plea agreement with the Starke County Prosecutor’s Office, King pleaded guilty to a single count of dealing meth as a Level 2 felony.
Charges of possession of meth, unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, possession of a narcotic drug, maintaining a common nuisance and possession of paraphernalia were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
Hall sentence King to 15 years with seven served in prison and the remaining eight on probation.
The charges stem from King’s arrest in January.
Starke County Sheriff Bill Dulin previously said officers with his department as well as those with the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department and Marshall County Undercover Narcotics Investigation Team served a search warrant at about 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 17, on a home in the 11000 East block of C.R. 300.
along with King, officers took aimee Swanson, 38, of Koontz Lake, and David P. Howard, 36, of Knox, into custody at the home.
During a search of the residence, officers discovered an SKS semi-automatic rifle, a .22 rifle, a shotgun, a 9mm semi-automatic rifle and a 38-caliber pistol, the sheriff said in a news release. They also found two pellet pistols and a pellet rifle.
Officers also found 19.25 grams of methamphetamine with a street value of nearly $2,000, 0.75 grams of heroin worth $150, four grams of marijuana and several prescription pills. They also discovered scales and various drug paraphernalia.
King was sentenced in February 2018 to six years in prison after he pleaded guilty to making meth.
Hall ordered that prison sentence stayed if King successfully completed a drug rehabilitation program.
On aug. 21, however, the judge re-imposed the prison term and ordered King to serve it after the dealing charge, meaning King’s total sentence is 13 years.
Starke County prosecutors charged Swanson with possession of meth, possession a narcotic drug, possession of a controlled substance and visiting a common nuisance.
In unrelated cases, Swanson is also charged with dealing a lookalike substance, dealing meth and misdemeanor theft in Marshall County. all of her cases are ongoing, according to court records.
Howard is charged with making meth, possession of chemical reagents, possession of meth and misdemeanor possession of paraphernalia in an unrelated 2018 case in Starke County. The case has not yet been resolved.
Earlier this year, Marshall County prosecutors charged Howard with dealing meth and dealing in a lookalike substance in an unrelated case.
None of Howard’s court cases have been resolved.