Jury convicts man on meth charges

PALMER — After two weeks of trial, a jury of nine men and three woman has convicted Billyjack Wiglesworth on seven of the eight counts he faced in connection with manufacturing methamphetamine.

Wiglesworth was arrested in 2007 after Houston police pulled over the pickup he was riding in. A search of the pickup turned up meth ingredients and drug paraphernalia. Eventually, police tied him to a meth dumpsite along the Little Susitna River in Houston as well as a cabin in Willow where meth had been cooked.

After Thursday’s verdict, Wiglesworth stood convicted of six drug charges relating to the possession of meth ingredients with the intent to cook meth and one of burglary. The jury chose not to convict him on a seventh meth ingredient charge.

“This case was very well-done on the part of the police and that always makes our job much easier,” prosecutor Rick Allen said after the verdict.

He also said he benefited greatly from the work Suzanne Powell did preparing the case before her death in July at age 41.

For her part, Wiglesworth’s attorney Abigail Sheldon said she was happy to have won an acquittal on one count but was otherwise disappointed in the verdict.

Wiglesworth was one of four defendants charged in the case. The other three, Karri Embach, 25; Jess Klein, 29; and Anfesa Galaktionoff, 23; eventually pleaded guilty to felony counts of owning meth precursors with the intent to make meth.

In closing arguments, Sheldon said, essentially, that the other three were blaming Wiglesworth for their crimes.

She cited testimony from David Dreves, who told jurors that he talked to Klein in jail in June of 2007. Dreeves said Klein told him the plan had been to let Wiglesworth take the fall.

“He thought that if he had told them, the police, that Billy had put the stuff in his car they would let everyone go but [Wiglesworth],” Dreves testified Wednesday. “He said it seemed foolproof to him but there he sat in prison. He wasn’t too happy about that.”

Sheldon said it may seem like anyone in Wiglesworth’s situation would claim he’d been set up. But, she told the jury, there’s a reason jurors have to decide these matters.

“Every once in awhile it actually is true,” she said.

Cline, Embach and Galaktionoff all of whom testified at trial, had ample reason to pin the case on Wiglesworth – they all wanted reduced sentences in their cases, Sheldon said.

Allen said the other defendants needed Wiglesworth to teach them how to cook meth. He pointed to a previous case from 2001 in which Wiglesworth was found in possession of the makings of a meth lab.