Brian Payment Jr.

A Butler man, charged with methamphetamine manufacturing, will be paroled to inpatient drug and alcohol treatment after a motion for parole was granted in Butler County Court Friday.

President Judge Thomas Doerr granted the motion by Brian M. Payment Jr., 28, who will now be paroled to a treatment facility after completing the county Community Reintegration Program April 23.

The program is geared toward assisting offenders in their rehabilitation as they transition to the community, according to the county's website, placing emphasis on addressing various needs of the offenders, reducing risk factors that contribute to incarceration, preparing the offender for parole through an array of treatment groups and/or additional services, and reintegrating the offenders into the community by giving them the opportunity to engage in external activities.

Payment was sentenced Sept. 14 to 15 to 30 months in the Butler County Prison after pleading guilty to felony possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.

He had already served 11 months as of sentencing, according to previous reports. He also was previously sentenced to serve 24 months probation consecutive to the expiration of his parole and given a $100 fine.

The charges stem from a state Attorney General's Office investigation into the manufacture of methamphetamine at an apartment at 125 Standard Ave.

Payment was initially charged with felony possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of methamphetamine precursors, operating a methamphetamine lab, risking a catastrophe and misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, alongside Thomas L. Odom, 32, who was previously sentenced to 21 to 60 months in state prison after pleading guilty to felony conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance.

Confidential informants reported that Payment and Odom were manufacturing the drug and that there was an explosion in the apartment's bathtub when the drug was cooked for the first time.

Later, police recovered items used in manufacturing the drug from a dumpster at St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church on Center Avenue, where sources said Payment dumped the objects.

Later that day, Payment suffered an apparent drug overdose, where emergency crews administered the opioid antidote Narcan, which revived him. He was later treated at Butler Memorial Hospital and released.

At that time, officers found boxes of Sudafed, which contain a key ingredient in meth manufacturing, and other related evidence.

The building was then evacuated and Payment signed a written consent to search it following his revival, according to authorities.

The attorney general's clandestine lab team searched the location and discovered three garbage bags containing lithium batteries, sodium hydroxide, petroleum distillates and ammonium nitrate — all items used in manufacturing the drug — according to court documents.