Joplin man given lengthy sentence in meth trafficking case

May 20—SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A federal judge Thursday sentenced a 34-year-old Joplin man to 24 years and four months in prison for his participation in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in Newton County.

U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool ordered that Jason C. Russell serve the term without parole at his sentencing hearing in federal court in Springfield. The defendant had pleaded guilty to the charge Nov. 17.

The U.S. attorney's office in Springfield said in a news release announcing the sentencing that Russell and a co-defendant, Brittany J. Adcock, 30, of Springfield, conspired to distribute the drug in Newton County from April 17, 2019, through Feb. 24, 2021. Adcock was sentenced May 10 to 10 years without parole after pleading guilty to the same charge.

The two were arrested Feb. 24, 2021, when an officer with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol stopped a pickup truck in which they were passengers on Interstate 44 near Vinita, Oklahoma. The U.S. attorney's office said Russell tried to convince the driver of the truck to flee from the officer, but he would not.

A search of the vehicle turned up two bags containing a total of 2 pounds of methamphetamine.

The U.S. attorney's office indicated that the defendant's history of violent and drug-related crimes weighed into the sentence he was assessed.

In April 2018, Russell led an officer on a high-speed chase of a motorcycle he was riding that had no license plates. In 2019, he posted a video online of himself assaulting another person and threatening them with a firearm, the U.S. attorney's office said.

He also has prior felony convictions for domestic assault and assault.