Jefferson City man pleads guilty to distributing multiple pounds of methamphetamine

Timothy Garrison, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Jefferson City man pleaded guilty in federal court to his role in a conspiracy that distributed multiple pounds of methamphetamine in Cole County.

Jasper Richmond, 25, pleaded guilty to distributing methamphetamine from July 22, 2015 to Oct. 6, 2016.

Richmond was arrested in 2016, when he was driving back from Oklahoma City, where he had picked up a pound of methamphetamine to distribute.

Richmond told authorities he wanted to help Jameson Smith pay a drug debt. Smith had previously been arrested with two pounds of methamphetamine in his possession and owed $70,000 to their suppliers.

Richmond also told officers that he started to transport methamphetamine from St. Louis after his release from prison in 2015. He estimated that he had transported approximately four pounds of methamphetamine during that time.

In the summer of 2016, Richmond made another trip to St. Louis and got approximately five pounds of methamphetamine.

Smith had previously pleaded guilty to his role in the drug-trafficking conspiracy and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison without parole.

Richmond faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole and up to a life in federal prison without parole.