2 face meth lab charges
A couple of suspected squatters are accused of operating a methamphetamine lab out of a vacant house in Butler.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office today charged Ronald L. Tejchman, 33, and Nikki Jo Haynes, 33, with a list of felonies in the case.
The pair, who recently moved to Butler from West Virginia, has been in the Butler County Prison since May 5, when city police found them at the home.
Police, who charged the suspects with felony trespass, also discovered the workings of a one-pot meth lab in the house, authorities said.
The attorney general's clandestine lab team was called in to assist and sweep the property of the potentially dangerous and hazardous materials used to cook meth.
“Meth labs like this one are very volatile not because of the chemical reaction but because they are flammable,” state narcotics agent Douglas Brink, who filed the charges, said after the defendants' arraignment. “These labs can ignite at any point.”
Along with Brink, a member of the AG lab team, the Butler Fire Department helped in inspecting the property and removing evidence.
Additionally, police said, officers found a folded piece of paper containing suspected meth that was inside Haynes' purse.
The purse also held a pill bottle filled with sulfuric acid and the top of a gas generator, which is used to convert methamphetamine base into the drug itself, Brink said.
A used syringe and two crack pipes also turned up in the purse, polices said.
In the house, authorities found other precursors used to manufacture the addictive drug.
Among the items seized, according to court documents, was sodium hydroxide, ammonium nitrate, lithium batteries, sodium chloride and pseudoephedrine — a key ingredient used to make meth that's found in most common cold medicines.
Brink described the Butler operation as a typical “one-pot” or “shake and bake” lab.
The method is one by which methamphetamine is made in one vessel, typically a 2-liter soda bottle or plastic Gatorade bottle, by combining unstable ingredients in the bottle and shaking it.
Using the simple technique, he said, meth cooks can whip up a small batch of the drug in as little as 30 minutes.
In all, authorities recovered 264 grams of the drug in the home.
District Judge William Fullerton arraigned both defendants on felony charges of manufacturing a controlled substance, operating a meth lab, possessing chemicals and other precursors with intent to manufacture a controlled substance, conspiracy, and risking a catastrophe.
They also are charged with misdemeanor drug possession.At times during the arraignment, Tejchman and Haynes, who also uses the name Nikki Jo West, looked at one another and shook their heads in apparent disbelief as Fullerton detailed the charges against them.Tejchman at one point acknowledged that he was unaware that what he did commanded such serious charges.“It is (serious),” Fullerton replied. “You're conceivably in the (legal) jackpot.”The judge, moments later, set bail at $75,000, telling Tejchman the high amount was for being charged with bringing “poison to our community,” referring to methamphetamine. Haynes was given similar bail.The defendants each are also being held in the county prison on $50,000 bail in connection with their prior arrests for trespass.City police stumbled upon Tejchman and Haynes after they got a call from the property owner, who does not live in the city, reporting that his wife had been at the house that day and found fresh food in the refrigerator.The owner told police that he recently bought the house and it was supposed to be vacant. No one, he said, had permission to be there, according to court documents.Officers found the defendants in the living room. The couple claimed someone they knew as “Mike” gave them permission to be there.A day later, police arrested Kenneth Michael Lipscomb, 44, of Clearfield Township with trespassing at the same house, where they found his attaché case and gym bag. Officers had gone there for a reported break-in.Lipscomb is the uncle of the homeowner's wife, and was previously doing remodeling work at the house before he was fired.Brink, meanwhile, said his investigation into the alleged meth lab continues, and other suspects could be charged. He declined to elaborate.
