Man sentenced for meth explosion
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A Tangipahoa Parish man has been sentenced to 17.5 years in prison for his part in a botched attempt to cook methamphetamine that blew up a Tickfaw trailer and killed one person more than two years ago, federal court records show.
U.S. District Judge Lance M. Africk in New Orleans handed down the sentence late last week against Arthur Chabaud, 34, the last of three defendants sentenced in the Jan. 14, 2007, explosion.
In March, in an agreement with prosecutors in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, Chabaud pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to manufacture five or more grams of methamphetamine, records show. Prosecutors agreed to drop three other counts against him, records show.
According to a factual basis document filed in March when the plea was made, Chabaud told narcotics agents the trailer exploded as he was draining a propane tank and as Sylvia Stewart turned on a blender being prepared to break up pseudoephedrine pills.
Stewart, 30, who had cooked methamphetamine with Chabaud a few times before, had second- and third-degree burns over 85 percent of her body, the factual basis document says. She later died at Baton Rouge General Medical Center’s Burn Unit.
Chabaud and another person in the trailer, Megan Hood, were burned but survived, records show.
During sentencing Thursday, Africk also ordered Chabaud to receive mental-health and drug-abuse treatment and gave him four years of supervised release after his prison term ends, court records show.
Chabaud had faced up to 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine, but Africk had granted a motion from prosecutors seeking to reduce Chabaud’s sentence, records show.
In court, Africk noted Chabaud had a previous conviction for manufacturing methamphetamine, Tangipahoa Parish sheriff’s deputies said in a statement Thursday.
Mandy Farrell, who owned the trailer at 12357 Chavers Lane, Tickfaw, and Megan Hood pleaded guilty Feb. 4 to endangering a human life while attempting to manufacture methamphetamine, court records show.
In May, Farrell was sentenced to 5.25 years in prison and Hood, 18 at the time of the fire and then of 30972 Pea Ridge Road, Albany, was given 3.25 years, records show.
Farrell and her then-6-year-old son escaped the fire unharmed, court records show.
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