Meth lab draws 20-year sentence

PALMER — A local man received 20 years in prison Friday for manufacturing meth.

Billyjack Wiglesworth, 34, was convicted after a two-week trial in November of seven counts relating to meth, its manufacture, and burglary. Friday, he was sentenced to a 14-year term for the manufacturing charges and a 6-year term for burglary.

The term was one year less than what prosecutor Rick Allen requested. In addition to the sentence, Allen asked that Wiglesworth be ordered to pay the entire $15,900 assessed value of a cabin.

At trial it came out that Wiglesworth and his cohorts had broken into a remote cabin and used it as a place to have their meth lab. Allen said the cabin’s owner has since tried to sell it but can’t.

“He’s been told by the State of Alaska that, ‘because your cabin had a meth lab in it you can’t sell it, you have to burn it to the ground,’” Allen said.

Superior Court Judge Vanessa White agreed to order the restitution be paid.

In arguing for a 21-year term, Allen pointed out that he could have asked for 15 years on each count, aiming for a sentence somewhere north of 70 years in prison.

“I haven’t asked for the moon. I haven’t asked for the court to lock Mr. Wiglesworth away for the rest of his life,” Allen said.

Allen also brought up two prior felony convictions on Wiglesworth’s record, one for meth and the other for sexual abuse of a minor.

“When the general public, the people of the Valley look at Mr. Wiglesworth, they’ve got, at least on paper, their worst nightmare. They’ve got a child-molesting meth cook,” Allen said.

White stopped him there.

Wasn’t this, “a teenagers-in-love sexual abuse of a minor case?” she asked.

Allen said the age difference — Wiglesworth was 20, the girl 13, didn’t quite fit that category.

Wiglesworth’s attorney, Abigail Sheldon begged to differ with Allen, saying the age difference was actually 19 and 14 and that it was “very much teenagers in love.”

She argued for a 7 1/2-year term, saying that her client wasn’t any more culpable than his co-defendants — Karri Embach, 26, Jess Klein, 30, and Anfesa Galaktionoff, 23 — none of whom got worse than seven-year sentences.

She also said that her client’s actions constituted the least-serious type of methamphetamine manufacturing. The reason meth is so dangerous, she said, is that it’s manufacturing process is known to cause fires and explosions. Wiglesworth and company could have cooked their drugs in an apartment complex or a hotel with families next door. But they didn’t.

“This meth lab was in an isolated cabin,” Sheldon said.

She also pointed out that there wasn’t a whole lot of actual meth found during the investigation.

“This was a largely unsuccessful meth lab,” Sheldon said.

In handing down her sentence, White said she hoped Wiglesworth could make better choices when he’s released and stressed the need to deter Wiglesworth and others from cooking meth.

“Methamphetamine is a palpable risk to our entire community. It is impacting an entire generation,” White said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.