68 year old woman sentenced to 5 years in prison for meth

68-year-old Covelo woman sentenced to prison in meth case

Feb 27, 2010 The Ukiah Daily Journal

A 68-year-old Covelo woman was sentenced Friday to five years in state prison on charges related to her sale of methamphetamine in the Covelo area.

Nancie Erline Henthorne was arrested last year by the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force on methamphetamine-related charges. In January, a jury found Henthorne guilty after a three-day trial.

"About 40 percent of the court's resources are devoted one way or another to methamphetamine-related offenses or methamphetamine-related problems," Superior Court Judge Richard J. Henderson said.

Henderson said Henthorne's actions were selfish and damaging to the community.
"Meth is a terrible scourge in this community," Henderson said. Henthorne's case was one of the most difficult sentences for Henderson to consider in his career due to Henthorne's age, he said.

In Covelo, Henthorne had operated the now-closed Casita Gallardo restaurant. Police said they found more than seven ounces of methamphetamine at her home, a .22 caliber Derringer pistol and about $30,000 cash in a Tri Counties Bank safe deposit box.

Defense attorney Justin Petersen said that Henthorne, with her former business and now her home gone, has lost everything.

"When the business failed she turned to selling methamphetamine not out of greed," Petersen said, "but to save her family and lift them out of the gutter." Deputy District Attorney Katherine Houston said that Henthorne was a major supplier of methamphetamine in the Covelo area.
"If we all lose our business or job or have financial problems, that does not justify us going into the drug-dealing business," Houston said.

A seven-year sentence without probation was recommended by the Probation Department, Henderson said.

Houston said the court has no choice but to send a message to Mendocino County residents that methamphetamine offenses mean a prison sentence.

"Your honor," Houston said, "this is the case to do this with, to tell methamphetamine dealers that you are going and you are going for a long time."