Buttery handed 25-year sentence
GREENCASTLE -- A 27-year-old Crawfordsville man received a 25-year sentence Thursday in Putnam County Circuit Court.
Brandon S. Buttery, 27, was convicted of Class B felony dealing in methamphetamine, and also received a sentence enhancement for being a habitual offender.
Originally, Buttery was charged with Class A felony dealing in methamphetamine, Class B felony dealing in methamphetamine and Class C felonies illegal possession of anhydrous ammonia or ammonia solution and possession of chemical reagents or precursors. Under the terms of a plea agreement, the majority of the charges were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea to the Class B felony.
Judge Matthew Headley sentenced Buttery in accordance with the plea agreement. Buttery received 15 years on the felony charge and 10 additional years as a result of being deemed a habitual offender. The sentences will run consecutively with five years suspended for the dealing charge for a total of 25 years with five years suspended.
The plea agreement provides Buttery with the option of petitioning the court for sentence reductions or modifications.
A pre-sentence investigation report prepared by Putnam County Adult Probation Officer Cody Tillotson was produced in court Thursday. Buttery's court-appointed attorney Joel Wieneke said he and his client had never seen the report, and he advised his client to read it before his sentence was given.
Buttery declined to do so.
"He says he doesn't want to look at it," Wieneke said.
Wieneke asked if his client would get a time cut if Buttery were to earn his General Equivalency Diploma while he was in prison.
"That's something that's decided at the DOC level, not the trial level," Headley said.
The charges against Buttery stemmed from an October 2008 incident in which Greencastle Police Department officers discovered during a traffic stop multiple items used in the manufacturing of meth.
Buttery is already an Indiana Department of Correction inmate. He is serving a sentence at Putnamville Correctional Facility for May 11, 2009 convictions on charges of Class D felony possession of precursors (two counts) and resisting law enforcement.
His earliest possible release date for those convictions is Nov. 18, 2011. Headley gave Buttery credit for the one day he had served in the Putnam County Jail. Wieneke said he thought Buttery should receive more credit time since he had been in prison, but Headley disagreed. He said if Wieneke could provide some proof that Buttery deserved more credit time, he would revisit the issue.
"I really don't think you're right," Headley told Wieneke.
Buttery's Putnam County case had been continued numerous times. During the course of the case, he was represented by five different public defenders.