By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The owner of a Centralia muffler shop was sentenced today to 20 months in prison after pleading guilty to three times selling methamphetamine to a police informant.
Frank Eugene Willis, 65, answered “Yes, your honor” repeatedly to the many questions Judge James Lawler asked him about the rights he was giving up by pleading guilty.
Eight family members and friends of Willis were behind him in the audience in Lewis County Superior Court.
Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brad Meagher told the judge part of the reason they brokered the plea deal was Willis has no criminal history and police neglected a 15-day deadline to get judicial approval for the wire intercepts – recordings made with a confidential informant.
“That was an issue for us,” Meagher said.
Among the charges dropped were possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver and possession of stolen property, including two firearms.
Willis, the longtime owner of the Muffler Hut on South Gold Street was arrested Aug. 19 after the Centralia Police Department’s SWAT team and other officers served a search warrant there, following an investigation into trafficking of narcotics and stolen property.
Police seized about 40 firearms – described as mostly a collection of old rifles and some shotguns – and two were confirmed as stolen, according to Willis’s attorney James Dixon. The two attorneys are negotiating about Willis forfeiting most of the guns, Dixon said.
The Olympia attorney had notified the court almost two weeks ago his client was planning to plead guilty and the lawyers were still hammering out a plea agreement.
Yesterday, when Dixon received some of the case records from the prosecutor’s office, he realized the police department had not gotten the required judicial review, he said.
“Once I discovered the problem with the wires, the prosecutor made an offer, which was fair, and we accepted,” Dixon said.
The standard sentencing range for the crimes to which Willis pleaded guilty is 12 to 20 months. Meagher and Dixon agreed on the recommended sentence and the judge concurred.
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Read the news story from Thursday Aug. 19, 2010 when police served a search warrant at the Muffler Hut here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter