Vance Horton

A Powell man who kept drug paraphernalia just inches away from his child’s baby bottles has been ordered to serve four to six years in prison.

Vance E. Horton — who had already been on probation for possessing methamphetamine — agreed to the prison time as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.

He admitted to violating his probation conditions on the prior felony possession charge and pleaded guilty to felony counts of endangering a child and possessing a controlled substance for a third time.

District Court Judge Bill Simpson accepted the deal at a Thursday court hearing. He encouraged Horton to take advantage of the counseling, treatment and other programs offered to inmates.

Simpson referenced a pre-sentence report indicating Horton has a reputation as an excellent oil field worker, telling the 41-year-old that he still has opportunities.

“Mr. Horton, you can make something of your life as long as you’re clean — and you’ve proven that. You know you have,” he said. “But this methamphetamine is poison … Anybody who has any exposure to it knows how deadly and destructive it is.”

Horton said that, as odd as it might sound, he was looking forward to the opportunity to get help while incarcerated.

“There were a few aspects of my life I didn’t really know how to deal with or what to do with before this opportunity’s been put in front of me. I’m looking forward to getting some of these things knocked out and dealt with,” Horton said, saying his addiction was one of those things.

“I just want to get a better way and on my way I guess so I can come back and be a healthy part of my son’s life again,” he said.

Horton’s felony trouble in Park County began in September 2018, when Powell police caught him with 6.6 grams of meth in his truck. That resulted in a felony conviction and a sentence of four years of supervised probation in May; four to six years of prison time was suspended.

However, Horton found himself in more trouble on Nov. 23. When probation agents checked his North Bent Street home that day, they found Horton was watching his 10-month-old child — and that he’d been using meth; he reportedly told authorities he’d smoked the drug the previous night, before his child had arrived.

Powell Police Officer Kevin Bennett wrote in a charging affidavit that Horton admitted to having a glass meth pipe that “was located approximately less than 4 inches away from a bottle nipple for [the baby].”

Police found another apparent meth pipe inside a case that “was also approximately less than 4 inches away from another bottle nipple for [the baby],” Bennett wrote.

The child was taken into protective custody and later “tested positive for methamphetamine,” the officer’s affidavit says. Horton, meanwhile, was arrested and has remained in custody since.

After he was sentenced on Thursday, Horton unsuccessfully requested a brief furlough from jail to get his affairs in order.

Deputy Park County Attorney Saige Smith opposed the request, raising concerns that Horton might try to use the day or hours out of jail “as a last hurrah.”

“We think it’s the safest for the community ... just simply keeping him incarcerated …,” Smith said.

In rejecting the request, Judge Simpson told Horton that “I think that you would keep your word and I think that you would do what the court asked you to do,” but said he lost the legal authority to order a furlough when he imposed the prison sentence.

While most felony cases and probation revocation proceedings drag out for months, if not years, Horton reached a deal with prosecutors in just 26 days.

The little more than a month that he’s already served in jail in his cases will be applied toward his prison sentences.

“If you do what you’re supposed to do, you should be able to get out in a reasonable period of time, go back to work, re-enter the energy industry, which you’re good at, which you have a good reputation,” Judge Simpson said toward the end of the hearing. “But Mr. Horton, it’s a sad circumstance, because none of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for the addiction and the use of the methamphetamine.”

The judge said he appreciated Horton’s comments about taking advantage of the opportunities in prison and added that, “it’s in your hands.”

“Yes, sir,” Horton agreed.