Kansas man draws lengthy prison term for meth trafficking
May 22—SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A federal judge sentenced a 49-year-old Pittsburg, Kansas, man at a hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Springfield to more than 24 years in prison for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.
Judge Roseann A. Ketchmark ordered Justin T. Lapping to serve 24 years and six months in a federal prison without parole and with the term to run consecutively to any sentence imposed in a pending Taney County case. The judge sentenced Lapping as a career criminal due to his nine prior felony convictions, according to a release Wednesday from the U.S. attorney's office announcing the outcome of the case.
Lapping, who pleaded guilty in May of last year, was arrested on the charge following an Aug. 9, 2022, pursuit of a motorcycle the defendant was riding that began in Crawford County, Kansas, and concluded on U.S. Highway 160 in Barton County, Missouri. At the time, he was carrying a bag containing 187.9 grams of meth.
The U.S. attorney's office said five of Lapping's prior convictions concerned drug trafficking and that two were for fleeing law enforcement.
