Havre man sentenced for having meth

A Havre man received five years probation Monday in District Court in Havre for having methamphetamine and other paraphernalia on him during a traffic stop.

David Daniel Day III, born in 1986, received a five-year commitment with the Department of Corrections, all suspended, for felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs and ordered to pay $400 of assigned counsel. The sentence is in accordance with a plea deal.

Day’s offense happened last year.

A Montana Highway Patrolman was traveling on U.S. Highway 87 June 12 and he saw a white sedan with heavy front end damage and a cracked windshield traveling at 77 miles per hour, seven miles over the speed limit.

After pulling the car over, a nervous Day, who immediately lit a cigarette, was found behind the wheel. Throughout the trooper’s experience, “he has often found that people try to mask the odor of illegal drugs or alcohol with cigarette smoke,” the charging document says.

The trooper found out the vehicle was registered to someone else and the proof of insurance was expired and listed a different vehicle from the one Day was driving. A driver’s license check returned to show Day’s was revoked.

After asking Day to get out of the car, the trooper saw a razor blade and a lighter in the center console, “items often found to be drug paraphernalia,” court documents say. When asked if there were any illegal items in the car, Day said, “I don’t know.”

Day told the trooper he was a roofer headed back to work but didn’t know the name of his employer. The trooper thought it strange that a roofer going to work would be wearing a T-shirt and shorts.

“(The trooper) has never seen roofers wear anything other than heavy pants for roofing as they commonly kneel on rooftop shingles,” documents say.

A K9 unit arrived on the scene with a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, and after performing a sniff inspection of the vehicle, officers had reason to believe there were drugs in the car.

The Border Patrol agent called a Tri-Agency Safe Trail Task Force Agent, who applied for a warrant.

A search of the vehicle yielded .4 grams of methamphetamine, several meth pipes, a scoop straw, two baggies with meth residue, bindle paper, a vape pin, a large syringe, two plastic tubes and three razor blades.