Carson City man guilty of trafficking meth faces minimum 10 years in prison
Carson City resident Joshua Grow was convicted Monday of trafficking 28 or more grams of methamphetamine by a jury of his peers, the Carson City District Attorney's Office announced.
Grow faces the maximum sentence of 10 years to life imprisonment or the minimum sentence of 10 to 25 years and a mandatory fine up to $500,000. He will be sentenced Feb. 3, 2014.
The two-day jury trial in Carson City was led by Deputy District Attorneys Travis Lucia and Iris Yowell. The state’s case was based on circumstantial evidence that connected Grow to a container of methamphetamine found in his car that was located within his immediate vicinity.
The container was designed to be perfectly concealed within the driver’s side door panel of Grow's car and was tied to him via witness testimony and photographic evidence. Grow’s defense relied primarily upon the fact that no witness had ever directly seen the container in Grow’s hands — an argument which was ultimately rejected by the members of the jury.
District Attorney Neil Rombardo praised the jury’s verdict and the diligent work of law enforcement professionals.
“The right to trial by jury is a critical element of our system of justice. Joshua Grow exercised his right and has been declared guilty of trafficking in methamphetamine by a jury comprised of citizens in our community," said Rombardo in a news release. "My thanks goes out to those citizens as well as to the law enforcement professionals of Carson City for their diligent efforts in bringing this drug dealer to justice.”