By Karen Hall

Editor

A Lewisburg man who pleaded guilty in Circuit Court last week was ordered to spend a year in jail.

Cameron L. Johnson, 36, was charged with four counts of aggravated assault and four counts of reckless endangerment. The aggravated assault charges were amended to reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, and Johnson was sentenced to two years on each count, with some of the sentences to run at the same time, and some one after the other, for a total effective sentence of four years.

Circuit Court Judge Lee Russell ordered Johnson to spend 365 days in jail "day for day," and then be on probation for the remainder of the four-year sentence. Once he is on probation, Johnson will repay the court costs at the rate of $50 per month.

Assistant District Attorney Mike Randles gave the factual basis of the case.

On Feb. 1, 2012, another man thought Johnson had stolen some of his property, so he drove to Johnson's house and knocked loudly on the door, but Johnson did not come out until they were driving away. He was armed with a handgun, and pulled the trigger several times with no result, Randles said. Johnson pulled the trigger again, and this time a bullet was fired, and hit a house 251 feet away. The bullet went through the door, and across a room where three people were sitting no more than 5 to 7 feet from its path. The bullet traveled on through a wall and grazed the ceiling of a second room, scattering dust on the person who was sitting there.

"Those folks were all clearly in the zone of danger," said Randles. "So were the occupants of the car. The defendant obviously had some malicious intent."

"Do you agree that's what happened?" Russell asked Johnson, who shook his head.

However, after a whispered conversation with his attorney Jonathan Brown, Johnson agreed to make a "best interest" plea, and take the sentence which had been negotiated for him. He has already spent 38 days in jail.

Also sentenced last week was Seth Lapere, 21, of Killen, Ala. He was charged with promotion of the manufacture of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia. On Jan. 27 Lapere bought pseudoephedrine tablets in Marshall County and handed them over to a man he knew would use them to make methamphetamine.

At a previous court appearance Lapere pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years, so last week he was in court for Russell to decide how this sentence was to be served.

Russell noted from the pre-sentence report that Lapere has "remarkable ACT scores," such as 99 percent on the verbal portion of the test, so he is clearly extremely intelligent, but also admits he has a drug problem.

"The problem is, what do we do about it?" said Russell, who decided to place Lapere in probation for three years, specifically ordering probation officers to administer both regular and random drug screens to him.

"If you have a positive drug screen, it's over," warned Russell. "Is he sufficiently scared?"

"Fear is sometimes what it takes," agreed Lapere's appointed attorney David McKenzie. "There has to be something out there stronger than his addiction; something that makes him want to be better."

"It's difficult for many reasons," said Russell. "The sword hanging over his head is a very sharp one."

If Lapere successfully completes probation, he will be able to request to have his record expunged.