Two Wooster residents plead guilty to possession of meth chemicals
Two Wooster residents admitted in court to having chemicals to make meth hidden in their trunk.
Dana Holliday, 26, of 311 E. South St., Apt. 203, Wooster, pleaded guilty in Wayne County Common Pleas Court to a count of illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for the manufacture of meth, a third-degree felony.
A count of illegal manufacture of meth was dismissed.
Marion Cecil, 48, of 579 N. Walnut St., Wooster, pleaded guilty in Common Pleas Court to one count of illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for the manufacture of meth.
A count of illegal manufacture of meth was dismissed.
The charges against Holliday and Cecil stem from an incident on Feb. 20.
Cecil also pleaded guilty to charges from a separate incident, including an amended count of illegal manufacture of meth, a second-degree felony, and a misdemeanor count of pollution of state land and water (from chemicals for illegal manufacture of drugs). A count of illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for the manufacture of meth was dismissed.
The charges stem from an incident April 18.
Sentencing for Holliday is set for Dec. 4 at 1:30 p.m. She faces up to three years in prison. Sentencing for Cecil hasn't been scheduled. He faces up to 11 years in prison for the felony charges, and up to 60 days in jail for the misdemeanor charge. He also faces up to a five-year license suspension.
Cecil and Holliday were arrested Feb. 20 after a traffic stop revealed they had numerous chemicals to make meth hidden in their trunk.
Senior Medway Drug Enforcement Agency agent Don Hall said previously Holliday was operating a station wagon when the two were stopped for a traffic violation by Wooster Police while heading southbound on Columbus Avenue. Both were arrested on existing warrants and a K-9 unit sniffed the vehicle and alerted the officer.
Hall said he found two Coleman-type coolers in the trunk, a hydrogen chloride generator and leftover chemicals used to make meth such as muriatic acid, sodium hydroxide, lithium batteries and pseudoephedrine, along with filters and funnels.
"Both coolers contained items used to make meth ... what was smoking was leftover from a prior cook," Hall said previously, adding it is believed they were heading to another location to cook the drug.
Cecil's other charges stem from an incident April 18 when law enforcement tracked him down in Grosjean Park in Wooster.
According to Hall, they had been "keeping tabs" on Cecil, as he was out on bond after being charged in February.
Hall said Cecil had set up some fishing poles to make it look like he was fishing. He wasn't fishing, but he was actively cooking meth using the one-pot method, just a couple feet away from the water, said Hall.
Hall said more than 20 pounds of waste was collected and included various chemicals used to make meth, along with 375 grams of liquid meth -- a "very large amount," said Hall.
According to Hall, by federal standards, the amount of product generated would qualify as a "super lab."
The Medway agents also recovered chemicals and additional meth-related trash from different areas in the woods in close proximity that were left from prior cooks, said Hall.
The waste was hauled out of the woods to a staging area -- a parking lot near East Henry Street in Wooster -- where the agents neutralized a lot of the chemicals. A representative from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation provided aid.
According to Hall, one of the one-pot meth bottles ignited and exploded onto the BCI agent. Although he was not injured, the agent's protective suit caught on fire and had to be put out with an extinguisher.
Reporter Amanda Gallagher can be reached at 330-287-1635 or agallagher@the-daily-record.com. Follow her on Twitter @a_gallagherTDR.