Royal man pleads guilty to possessing meth, gets 12 years in prison
A Royal man arrested with over 42 grams of meth last year after being stopped for having a stolen license plate was sentenced to 12 years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty in Garland County Circuit Court.
Ronnie Edward Turnbough, 32, who lists a Buttrum Trail address, pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance, meth, with purpose to deliver and was sentenced to the maximum of 30 years in prison, with 18 years suspended, and ordered to pay $315 in court costs and will have a warrantless search waiver on file after his release.
According to court records, Turnbough was previously convicted in Garland County on Oct. 2, 2019, for possession of meth and sentenced to four years’ supervised probation which was revoked on April 14, 2020, and he was sentenced to three years in prison, but later paroled. He was convicted in Perry County on Feb. 15, 2022, of possession of a firearm by certain persons and sentenced to three years’ probation.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on Oct. 12, 2022, shortly after 3 p.m., Hot Springs police Officer John Albright saw a silver Toyota C-HR at the intersection of South Avenue and Sixth Street and a computer check showed the license plate was possibly stolen.
He made a traffic stop on the vehicle at the corner of Noxon and Seventh streets and made contact with the driver and sole occupant, identified as Turnbough, and detained him after confirming the license plate had been reported stolen.
A computer check on Turnbough showed he had a warrant for misdemeanor failure to appear so he was taken into custody. In searching him, Albright found a single clear baggie of a white crystalline substance in his front left pocket and a black bag in another pocket that contained another baggie of the substance which later tested positive for meth, a total of 42.6 grams.
Turnbough pleaded not guilty to the possession charge on Jan. 17 and was released on a $10,000 bond on Feb. 8 and eventually set for a disposition hearing Tuesday.