Suspects stumble out of dope-cook house trying to catch their breaths
SALINE CO.— On the same day charges were dismissed against a man who was charged with threatening to bash his mother’s head in with a baseball bat, his sister was busted in one of the biggest meth arrests of the year.
VICTOR FULLER
According to court documents, on Thursday, March 6, at approximately 6:36 p.m. Harrisburg police were dispatched to a residence at the 300 block of West Homer Street in Harrisburg after being advised by Paula Fuller that her son, Victor L. Fuller, 39, who lived with her, had knocked the phone out of her hand and caused a scratch on her face.
When officer Brent Davis arrived on scene he spotted a gold passenger car pulling up to the residence and assumed it was Victor because following his mother’s call he had called dispatch saying Victor would be waiting outside to talk to authorities.
“Victor began saying he hadn’t done anything and that everyone was trying to get him arrested,” Davis said. “I advised Victor to remain outside so I could speak with the original caller inside the residence.”
Claimed head bashing threatened
Once inside, Paula Fuller told officer Davis that she had been on the couch talking on the phone to her mother when Victor started yelling and screaming at her telling her he was going to bash her head in with a baseball bat.
She said her son then went to a nearby closet and got a baseball bat and threw it on the couch.
“I observed the baseball bat when I entered the house,” Davis said. “It was a black/blue aluminum bat.”
Paula Fuller said her son never “came at her” with the baseball bat but was up in her face calling her names and threatening her, saying they were going to die.
She said he then slapped the phone she was talking on out of her hand.
“This caused the small red mark across the right side of her face,” David said. “She said she was scared and tired of Victor’s antics and that it was time for him to go.”
Mrs. Fuller told officer Davis she wanted to pursue charges and completed a written statement.
‘Hyped up and angry’
When Davis went back outside and spoke with an obviously “hyped up and angry” Victor, he said that he had been arguing with his mother and that his entire family had been trying to get him arrested for the past couple of days.
Victor went on to deny slapping his mother’s hand and knocking the phone to the floor and said the baseball bat was already on the couch.
Victor was taken into custody on a charge of Domestic Battery and house in the county jail on $500 cash bond.
Victor was charged in 2012 with Aggravated Battery of a Pregnant/Handicapped Person, but in return for a guilty plea the charge was amended to Domestic Battery and he was sentenced to two and a half years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Victor, on his affidavit of assets and liabilities, claimed to actually be living at 332 South Sloan St., Harrisburg and to be single, with eight children, and unemployed.
After sitting in jail for nearly a month, the charges against Victor Fuller were dismissed on April 1, after Paula Fuller notified authorities that she no longer intended to cooperate in the prosecution of her son.
The exact same day, Penny L. Fuller (quite possibly his sister, we were unable to determine that as of press time), age 37, of the same 320 West Homer St., Harrisburg address that the baseball bat fracas took place, was taken into custody on drug charges.
WILLIAM LYON
Multiple meth labs located
According to information filed in the case, on April 1 at 4 p.m. near the intersection of Capital and South streets, Harrisburg officer Nathan Moore detected a strong odor of ether, commonly used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.
“I checked the weather on my cell and noted that the wind was blowing at 10 mph out of the north-northwest,” Moore said. “I turned around and drove west on South Street and then turned north in an alleyway.”
Moore said the odor became stronger and once he reached Church Street it was undetectable.
“I know (William) Toby Lyon to live at 821 West Church St. which is just northwest of the last location I detected the odor,” Moore said. “Lyon is a known methamphetamine user.”
Moore called Harrisburg officers Sgt. Todd Cavender and Zach Popetz for backup and they all met just south of Lyons’ residence.
The trio of lawmen approached Lyons’ house and could still smell the odor.
When Moore knocked on the door and Lyon answered the smell became intense.
PENNY FULLER
Gasping for breath
When he stepped outside, Moore told Lyon why he was there and placed him in handcuffs.
When asked, Lyon said that Kacey Marie Durham, 27, of 821 West Church St., Harrisburg; Penny Fuller; and Ryan Trout, 41, of Harrisburg were inside.
Durham, Fuller, Trout were ordered out of the residence and when they emerged they were said to be coughing, trying to catch their breaths.
Lyon admitted to Moore that there was an active meth lab in the house but that it belonged to Fuller and Trout.
During a search of Trout, officers discovered a nylon pouch, which contained a bent spoon and two hypodermic syringes.
KACEY DURHAM
At 6 p.m., working with agents from the Meth Response Team, officers located one active meth lab in the dining room area and numerous old labs in the trash in the kitchen and in the trash outside the house.
They also located several methamphetamine pipes, with one containing a usable amount of a white powder that field-tested positive for methamphetamine, 12 more hypodermic syringes, and chemicals commonly used in the manufacture of methamphetamine including drain opener, a lithium battery, coffee filters, ice packs and several empty pseudoephedrine boxes.
Felonies charged
The total weight of the recovered labs came in at approximately 400 grams.
Durham, Fuller, Trout and Lyon were all taken into custody and charged with one count each of Aggravated Methamphetamine Manufacture Near a Place of Worship 400+ grams, Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Manufacturing Materials and Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine less than five grams.
Lyon was charged additionally with one count each of Unlawful Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Unlawful Disposal of Methamphetamine Waste and Unlawful Use of a Hypodermic Syringes.
In her affidavit of assets and liabilities Fuller claimed to be an unemployed single mother of four on disability with Mr. Trout as her boyfriend.
She took out an Order of Protection from Mr. Trout in Williamson County in 2012.
RYAN TROUT
Durham/Trout have previous drug convictions
At the time of the arrests Durham had already been convicted in 2008 of Unlawful Possession of Hypodermic/Syringe and was currently serving a January 2 sentence of 30 months probation following an Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine less than five grams conviction on a December 2013 arrest.
Ryan Trout was convicted in Williamson County in 2001 on a charge of Unlawful Possession of a Controlled Substance (prescription medication) and was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay $1,712 in fines and fees of which he still owes $412.
Ongoing for years
It appears that the drug activity at the Church Street home has been an ongoing occurrence for quite some time and those familiar with the alleged drug house say they are glad to see police taking action.
“This has been going on for years and I am hopeful it is over,” said one source familiar with the case.
Cash bonds were set at $5,000 each.