Drug Dealer Sentenced to Prison

A drug dealer was sentenced to prison at a hearing this week in Fourth Judicial District Court in Sheridan. Sheridan Media’s Ron Richter has the details.

Between March 24 and April 13 of this year, 42-year-old Jonathan Stieve sold drugs to a confidential informant as part of an investigation by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. Stieve was arrested on April 13 and charged with six counts of delivery of a controlled substance. Three of the charges were for methamphetamine distribution, two of the charges were for cocaine distribution and one charge was for the distribution of suboxone.

At a hearing in District Court on July 18, Stieve pleaded guilty to all six counts as part of a plea agreement that was reached with the state. The plea deal recommended a sentence 3 to 5 years in prison for each count, suspended in favor of three years of supervised probation. A request to modify Stieve’s bond was also addressed during the hearing in July. District Court Judge Darci Phillips agreed to modify Stieve’s bond from a $20,000 cash or surety bond, to a $20,000 unsecured bond with the terms and conditions that he submit to random high level drug testing and be evaluated for substance abuse and follow through with any and all recommendations of the evaluation. One day after being released from Jail, Stieve was cited for disorderly conduct for an incident that occurred at a bar in Sheridan. At a sentencing hearing this week in District Court, Judge Phillips, citing Stieve’s actions after he was released from jail following the bond modification, rejected the plea agreement and sentenced Stieve to 3 to 5 years in prison for each of the six felony counts. The sentences will run concurrent to one another. Stieve was also ordered to lay $1,375 in court costs and assessments and was given 173 days of credit for time served for presentence confinement.