Wade Allen Townsend, 54, of Festus has been sentenced to seven years in prison for possession of methamphetamine stemming from several incidents between 2016 and 2018, according to court documents.
Townsend pleaded guilty to three felony charges for possession of a controlled substance and a misdemeanor stealing charge, and on Aug. 15, Jefferson County Div. 1 Circuit Judge Joseph Alfred Rathert sentenced him to seven years for each possession charge and 120 days in jail for the stealing charge. The prison terms will be served concurrently, or at the same time, court records show.
Jefferson County assistant prosecuting attorney Brent R. Wolk handled the cases.
In November 2016, Townsend was seen going in and out of a restroom with a woman at Jokerst Park in Festus, and the two were exchanging something. When police arrived at the park, the woman was gone, but Townsend was still there, and officers found him with a glass pipe and a syringe filled with a liquid that tested positive for methamphetamine, the probable-cause statement in the case said.
Then, in January 2017, while Townsend was in the Jefferson County Jail, he was found in possession of meth and a bag containing marijuana, the report said.
In August 2018, Townsend and Matthew Hanlon were stopped by police as they exited the Shropshire Park on South Fourth Street in Festus, and police found him with a glass smoking pipe with residue on it that turned out to be meth. Also that day, Townsend and Hanlon could be seen on surveillance footage taking a box of metal-framed screen doors, altogether valued at $198.55, from the Festus Garden Apartments in the 500 block of Briar Ridge, the probable-cause statement said.
Hanlon pleaded guilty to misdemeanor stealing in connection with the August 2018 incident, and on July 23, Jefferson County Div. 10 Associate Circuit Judge Jeffrey Thomas Coleman suspended Hanlon’s sentence and placed him on two years’ probation, court records show.
Townsend currently is in the Ozark Correctional Center in Fordland.