• By BOB ANDERSON
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: Feb 5, 2010 - Page: 3B

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Investigators arrested three people who were grilling steaks on the front porch of a Livingston Parish house while making methamphetamine in the kitchen oven, authorities said Thursday.

“The oven was occupied,” said Jason Ard, chief deputy of the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office, said of the outdoor meal preparation.

The methamphetamine making process was near completion and would have provided almost 10 grams of the illegal drug, Ard said.

Task force members, including representatives of the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office, made the arrests Tuesday evening after searching the house at 18782 Old Ferry Road near Maurepas, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Those arrested, all of Maurepas, were identified as Brandon Babin, 37, and Richard Smith, 26, both of 18782 Old Ferry Road; and Jeremy Tanner, 22,  17648 Cline Drive, according to a Sheriff’s Office press release.

Each was booked with operation of a methamphetamine lab and manufacturing a controlled dangerous substance, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The three remained in the Livingston Parish Detention Center Thursday in lieu of $150,000 bail each the Sheriff’s Office reported.

In a separate case, deputies arrested Hannah Khrystyne Kern, 21, of 10064 Cochise Drive in Denham Springs, Tuesday and booked her with operation of a methamphetamine lab and manufacturing of a controlled dangerous substance.

Deputies said that case arose from a methamphetamine lab that was found on December 24, 2009.

They said they were unable to locate Kern until Tuesday.

Kern remained in jail late Thursday in lieu of $150,000 bail, according to the Sheriff’s Office.