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Meth maker found guilty

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By Denise G. Callahan, Staff Writer Updated 4:01 PM Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A Deerfield Twp. meth manufacturer was convicted Wednesday, July 1, on 17 drug, gun and child endangering charges.

The Warren County jury took just a couple hours to find Joseph Wiggins, 44, of Deerfield Twp. guilty of manufacturing, possessing and selling methamphetamine, child endangering and possession of several other illegal drugs.

Wiggins will be sentenced at a later hearing, but his attorney Kevin Thornton has said he could get 25 years in prison.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to a domestic violence complaint at the Wiggins residence at around 10 a.m. March 14. According to court testimony, Wiggins answered the door, holding his 8-month-old daughter in his arms.

After searching the home and a shed, police found a meth lab, heroin, marijuana, illegal prescription drugs and the guns. Wiggins did time in prison a few years ago on similar charges and is not allowed to have firearms.

Wiggins took the stand in his own defense during the three-day trial and a tape of his interview with one of the Warren County Drug Task Force detectives was played. In both instances, he admitted he makes meth, keeps half for his own personal use and sells the rest. He denied ever making the drug on his own property and says he makes his meth out in farm fields and elsewhere off site and outside of Warren County.

“I’m a guerilla cook,” he testified. “I don’t require heat or lights. I can do that under a bridge.”

Wiggins claimed his former girlfriend and mother of his daughter, Denise Cook, and his former friend Frank Kruse set him up. Wiggins said he caught Kruse cooking meth in the shed on the property on March 10 and “ran him off.” Then he said he found Cook and Kruse in bed together in his house with “unbuttoned shirts and unbuttoned britches” and he “ran” Kruse off again, with his own pistol.

He claimed the night before the arrest he found prescription drugs and other contraband planted in his house from Cook and Kruse, he claimed. Cook went to police the day before and filled out a domestic violence complaint against Wiggins, which prompted the visit on March 14 by Deerfield Twp. sheriff’s deputies.

Thornton could not be reached for comment following the verdict. Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel said the verdict was just.

“This case demonstrates drug crimes are not victimless,” she said. “The most egregious thing about this case is not what he has done to himself by using methamphetamine, what is more egregious is what he subjected his child to.”

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