Marble Hill man receives 15-year prison sentence

A Marble Hill, Mo., man will spend another 15 years behind bars for his role in a methamphetamine-making operation.

Arlen B. Brown, 49, already was serving a 10-year sentence for a probation violation. The 15 years will be tacked onto that.

Brown was sentenced Tuesday in Ste. Genevieve County by Circuit Judge Sandy Martinez on a change of venue. The judge said Brown was lucky for all the chances he had to break free of drugs.

Brown was arrested July 13, 2002, after a highway patrol trooper stopped a van in which Brown was a passenger. Brown tossed a methamphetamine lab out the window, but officers recovered it along with meth in the first stage of production and other evidence.

Mike Alford with the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force, who helped investigate the case, said the sentence was appropriate for a "prior and persistent offender." He said assistant Cape Girardeau County prosecutor Teresa Bright-Pearson handled the court case well.

"She pushed it over the edge for us," Alford said. "I can't say enough about it."

Cape Girardeau lawyer Bryan Greaser represented Brown at the sentencing. He was unavailable for comment.