Following testimony in a methamphetamine laboratory case, county Judge Timothy McCune Wednesday said he was inclined to allow evidence in trial that had been collected from a Butler home, after the defense argued that the consent to search was not obtained legally.

McCune gave attorneys for both sides seven days to file briefs in support of their arguments, and will issue a ruling afterward.

Testimony was presented Wednesday regarding a motion to suppress evidence obtained from an apartment at 125 Standard Ave., where Brian M. Payment Jr., 27, was accused of manufacturing methamphetamine.

Public Defender Charles Nedz argued that Payment could not have given valid consent and there was no justification for a warrantless search, as Payment had recently been revived with Narcan from an alleged heroin overdose.

Douglas Brink, an agent with the Attorney General’s Office, testified Wednesday that he obtained written consent from Payment following his revival and evacuation of the apartment building.

Brink said Payment signed the consent form, which was witnessed and signed also by Payment’s mother, Wanda Mortimer.

The Butler County Drug Task Force and city police assisted in the investigation during which a law enforcement informant tipped off authorities about the illicit drug-cooking lab, according to court documents.

Brink said information was received that Payment had left the materials in a Dumpster at St. Michael the Archangel Church on Center Avenue, and while he and county Detective Tim Fennell, who supervises the Butler County Drug Task Force, were in the process of viewing surveillance video provided by church officials on Sept. 30, he heard a 911 dispatch for an emergency response to the Standard Avenue apartment. The response was for a white male who was unconscious. He said he then notified Butler City police about the suspected meth lab at the apartment, and they relayed information that items had been found consistent with making the drug.

After responding to the home, he said he verified items in the home after first responders had entered, and then evacuated the building.

He said at the time, Payment was up walking, talking with those on the scene, and once outside, signed the consent form to search.

“He was coherent, he was alert, he knew why we were there,” Brink testified. “I asked him if he would give us consent and he said, ‘I will.’ He acknowledged that there were items in the house.”

Butler Ambulance Service paramedic John VanSicklin testified that he arrived on the scene and found Payment lying on a bed with shallow breathing.

After an assessment, he determined that Payment was most likely experiencing a heroin overdose and administered Narcan, which normalized his breathing.

“He is a known diabetic and a known heroin user,” he said.

VanSicklin said that Payment then was able to talk with emergency personnel before being taken by ambulance to Butler Memorial Hospital.

Mortimer, who testified for the defense, said that when she arrived, Payment was still being tended to and she saw no Narcan administered, and when Payment signed the consent form, he was confused.

On cross-examination, when asked if she had also signed the paperwork, she said she did, but was under the impression that “it was consent for the ambulance ride.”

“It was very confusing,” she said.

Nedz argued that Payment’s mental capability to consent had been hindered by his recent overdose.

“He was on the verge of death,” he said. After he was revived, “he wasn’t out of the woods just yet in my opinion. He was groggy, incoherent and this is a serious medical issue.”

The attorney general’s clandestine lab team was called in to assist and discovered three garbage bags at the apartment containing lithium batteries, sodium hydroxide, petroleum distillates and ammonium nitrate, according to court documents.

Payment is charged with felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, operating a meth lab, possessing methamphetamine precursors, risking a catastrophe and misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance.

He is in the Butler County Prison on $100,000 cash bail.