Stella man sentenced to 21 years without parole in meth conspiracy case

Jeff Lehr, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·3 min read

May 26—SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A federal judge Tuesday sentenced a 31-year-old reputed member of the Southwest Honkys prison gang to 21 years in prison for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine.

U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool ordered at a sentencing hearing in federal court in Springfield that Nathen D. Libertus, of Stella, serve the term without parole.

Libertus had pleaded guilty May 20 of last year to participating in a conspiracy to distribute meth in Newton and Barry counties from April 30, 2017, through Jan. 20, 2019.

The defendant has been involved in a series of vehicle stops, pursuits and arrests involving methamphetamine in recent years, beginning with an incident Nov. 10, 2017, when a McDonald County sheriff's deputy stopped a car on Missouri Highway 76 that was dragging something that was throwing sparks along the roadway.

A woman with outstanding warrants was driving the vehicle, a search of which turned up a bag containing about 332 grams of meth and $6,952 in cash, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Springfield. Inside the bag with the meth and cash was a wallet containing Libertus' driver's license.

A few months later, on March 29, 2018, a Newton County deputy checking out a report of a suspicious vehicle pulled up behind a car with Oklahoma plates in a driveway and tried to make contact with Libertus in the driver's seat. The defendant tried to drive away, got the car hung up on shrubbery, a fence and a cinderblock, and then fled on foot into some woods.

He eventually was taken into custody, with $4,430 discovered in his pockets and another $1,591 recovered from inside the vehicle along with drug paraphernalia and a scale that tested positive for meth residue.

The U.S. attorney's office said in a news release announcing the sentencing of Libertus that investigators were set up at a residence in Newton County on April 9, 2018, when the defendant and the woman stopped in McDonald County in November 2017 pulled up to the place in a car that checked out as having been reported stolen. They drove the car into some woods on the property where they were attempting to conceal it when investigators made their presence known and the defendant once again tried to flee.

That time, he was caught with $1,240 in his wallet and a key to the stolen car in his pocket and detectives found a bag containing about 396 grams of meth in a hollowed-out railroad tie near the vehicle and 2 more grams in a hollow log nearby.

A call reporting a man passed out in a vehicle Sept 4, 2018, in Newton County led to yet another arrest of Libertus in possession of scales, a bag containing about 30 grams of meth and about $1,245.

On Jan. 20, 2019, he was found passed out again in a vehicle but managed to revive and lead officers on an hourlong vehicle pursuit before being caught and arrested in possession of almost 3 pounds of meth and other incriminating evidence, the U.S. attorney's office said.

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